After Her Bone Marrow Transplant

After the weekly blood test
I am the prayer of bone. Boiled down hard, sweat
of my broth, the retch in throat. Fingers
curl into palm skin; car keys bite
along wrist and thumb. Dry drown.
The side of the bed where the wall paint
picks itself clean, yellow pills mash
in teeth, grit psalm, tongue in its quest
for bloodless break. A hand wringing song.
Each sound a bottomless pit,
rock clatter on walls.

I grab my thigh and drive out of the cemetery
from the room, dread, and stones
and flowers, the weight of a body,
its dead arms as branches, brittle flop,
broke, split, cold insects as I try
not to sprint, to transplant the keys,
the door slams, the screams push
the hallway into my mouth,
and I am choke. I am failure and burn
marks, I am the stained apartment rug,
dogshit ground into sneakers, knife
in my eye socket, peripheral pain,
steel. I can’t get up. Move.

Put your hands over your face,
tell her it’s going to be ok.
Keep your feet still.
Smash your toes into the hardwood,
hold back the ocean.
Run motherfucker run, while you can.

The Half-Boy

Their son was born in half —
Half in the wooden crib,
half in the arms of moths.
They would visit him at night,
squeezing white bodies
through shutters, wing dust
filling the room like bedtime
stories of a mother half-ghost.

Her arms built of thorns,
limbs like a delicate coastline.
They crawl over his lips
to his ear, a basking pod,
turning his fine brown hair
to gray every night. They
whisper tales of his father,
half-man, his muscles built
a world in the soil below.

One day the half-boy
would return to it,
and find his own ghost wings.

C.L. Liedekev

Jersey-born C.L. (short for Corby Lynn) now resides in Conshohocken (Conshy), PA, with his real name, wife, and children. He is a graduate of Rowan University and Gloucester Country College. He is a two-time nominated for Best of the Net, with his poem, "November Snow. Philadelphia Children's Hospital," a finalist in 2021. His work is found in such places as Humana Obscura, Red Fez, MacQueen's, Hare's Paw, River Heron Review, Marrow, American Writers Review, Quibble, and others.