"Child Mortality" by Joanna Cleary

Child Mortality

1.     it’s just like when you count on the porch
2.    three four five sixsevensevensixfivefour
3.    two and right on the one you blast off
4.    i count the time you linger in midair
5.    you skin both knees upon landing
6.    a choice: shame or forgiveness 
7.    i beg you as you look at me  


forgive me
forgive
me

Joanna Cleary

Joanna Cleary is an undergraduate student double majoring in English Literature and Theatre and Performance at the University of Waterloo. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in The /tƐmz/ Review, The Hunger, Pulp Poets Press, Every Pigeon, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and Subterranean Blue Poetry, among others. Follow her on instagram @joannacleary121.

Headshot: Sam Toman

Photo Credit: Staff