“The Old Woman in the Shoe” by Brandel France de Bravo

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Mother, Loose by Brandel France de Bravo

Moored in bramble but still I tell them “row.”
What else can I do with these charges,
bothersome as bunions? In the dark of the hull,

their sequin-sweat catches light, and they turn
orphaned faces toward it, gulping air
from the open portholes. I removed the laces

after Dimple Dan died, hid them below deck.
Oar-breath and the clatter of shackles keep time,
as one by one the children fold, forehead to knees.

Singing softly, I carry the weary to the bow
where five cots wait and pitch the dead
into the toss and roil of thorn. Life is a tight fit.

For dinner I give them broth, shouting,
“Cup your hands. Them that’s got the will
knows not to mind the scald.” What does not leak

is lapped, but the bread is mine. I eat the crust,
throw away the rest for all to see, and search
the horizon with my glass, squint for delivery.

Hear my lullaby: someday, the anchor will lift.
This cargo a memory, I will let my sails out,
pull them taut as I see fit. Captain of my shoe,

my tongue will take me where I want to go.

-Brandel France de Bravo
Mother, Loose
(Accents Publishing)

brandel_france_de_bravo_thumbBrandel France de Bravo is the author of Provenance, which won the 2008 Washington Writers’ Publishing House prize in poetry and was a ForeWord Book of the Year finalist. Her poems, which have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and essays have appeared in various journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Fairy Tale Review,Gulf Coast, and Seneca Review. She is co-author of Trees Make the Best Mobiles: Simple Ways to Raise your Child in a Complex World and the editor of Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices. A graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College with a master’s in public health, she works for a consumer health organization in Washington, D.C.

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