"Waiting in Arrivals" by Heidi Seaborn

Waiting in Arrivals
— Basque Separatists ETA planted a bomb at the Madrid airport on December 30, 2006

                                     I pluck glass stars

                                                    from my daughter’s curls,

sponge the spray of nicks above her brow,
hold her
longer than she desires,

            kiss her singing ears.

                       A bomb
at Barajas airport, buckled

the car park
killed two men,

                        rained shards

                                        on my daughter, only waiting

                                                                      for her friend to arrive,

only     waiting 

only
waiting.

Heidi Seaborn

Heidi Seaborn is the author of the award-winning debut book of poetry, Give a Girl Chaos (see what she can do), C&R Press / Mastodon Books, March 2019. She is the Editorial Director for The Adroit Journal and a New York University MFA candidate. Since Heidi started writing in 2016, she’s won or been shortlisted for nearly two dozen awards, including the International Rita Dove Award in Poetry, and published in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Missouri Review, Mississippi Review, Penn Review, Nimrod, a chapbook, and a political pamphlet. She graduated from Stanford University and is on the board of Tupelo Press.

Headshot: Rosanne Olson

Photo Credit: Staff