Hunger
By Sonya Schneider
If, by which I mean, when he was hungry, our mother would prop him up like a round-cheeked doll between the wheelchair’s blue vinyl seat and the homemade wooden tray, moaning. Then she’d sit across from him and feed him from her mouth so that he would not choke. First, the food was cut, then carefully chewed, then spit between her fingers and tucked onto his outstretched tongue. Two birds, hungry for love. This was after she nursed him for years, after the blue scar down his chest began to lighten, and the other one wrapping his ribcage was made. My brother’s heart was healing, but his mind would never be the same. She learned to give him sustenance, and he learned to eat all of her.
Sonya Schneider lives in Seattle, WA, and is currently earning her MFA from Pacific University. Born and raised in San Diego, CA, she graduated with a BA in English from Stanford University. Her plays have been produced in Seattle, and her poetry can be found in Catamaran Literary Reader, West Trestle Review, Aji Magazine, Eunoia Review, and Mom Egg Review. She was a finalist for the 2022 New Letters Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry.
11/8 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
11/8 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray and local poet Judy Ireland / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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Haunting. 💙
wow.