Kristie L. Williams
How I Honored My Disdain For A Sympathy Card Sent From The Morgue
Fingers singed the ecru envelop
rubber stamped
To The Family Of
The Decedent
I spat the words at my slammed front door
careful to crush each one into a far-flung ball
My left palm
cried one bloody tear
Pricked by the gold ribboned cardstock edge of their
sardonically Halmark’d greeting
Eyes gnashed embossed
white water lilies
Ears suffocated on the message
bloomed on the inside bottom panel
We Do Hope That Our Part In The Disposal Process Of Your Decedent
fosters A Positive Arc Along Your Grief Journey
Each ripped piece of printed petal
keened for humanity’s demise
My Daddy Taught Me To Save Myself
He told me,
One day my breath
will stop.
You will have to hold
yourself up,
alone.
I understood,
my limp legs
trailed behind me like ribbons.
I would have to train
my arms to burn carpet,
speed through my commando crawl.
Friday nights were for
living room sleeping bags,
pizzas and a movie.
The MGM Lion
roared.
My stomach
stormed.
Even before Miss Gulch[i]
warned me.
Asleep before everyone was safe
I woke in darkness,
Searching for sovereign hands
trusted more than my own.
His right hand sagged on the floor
my small fingers dug in, still
his chest did not rise.
I flipped on my belly,
turned my body toward
salvation and heaved.
Red shag fibers soon dotted blue-grey linoleum,
moonlight shown on the long white spiral cord
waiting to release my voice.
I hooked a left-handed digit between spirals,
begged my chicken winged right arm to canopy my skull,
as the receiver plummeted from its base station.
A bleating dial tone
cried operator.
I watched seconds bounce in the echo,
until his shadow swallowed them silent.
He told me,
My breath
hasn’t yet stopped.
But you have held
yourself up,
alone.
[i] Miss Gulch is the real life counterpart to The Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.
Kristie L. Williams started her writing journey to impress boys and found her true voice as a poet during her time at Saint Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg NC where she earned a B.A. in English/Creative Writing. It was in that space and time that the seeds for this collection were planted. Kristie went on to East Carolina University and received an MAEd in Adult Education. She continued to share her love of words while teaching in the North Carolina Community College System. After 12 years of teaching Kristie began using her own story of quadriplegia and cerebral palsy to advocate for herself and others with disabilities. She describes her work as disability adjacent, because although it shapes the context of her work cerebral palsy does not overshadow the arc of her story. She has been previously published by Main Street Rag, Dan River Review, Cairn, Maximum Tilt Solstice Anthology, Madness Muse Press, Hermit Feathers Review Heron Clan 8, Big City Lit, Nostos: Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Snapdragon: A Journal Of Art And Healing. New poems will be featured in Artemis Journal, Heron Clan 9, The Poetry Society of Virginia Centennial Anniversary Anthology of Poems By Member Poets, and Fixed and Free June 2023. kristielwilliams.com
