{"id":3495,"date":"2022-03-30T23:02:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T06:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2024-12-12T11:11:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T19:11:20","slug":"two-poems-by-brandi-nicole-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/two-poems-by-brandi-nicole-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems by Brandi Nicole Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"78\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 78<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Two Poems by Brandi Nicole Martin<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

FOR THEN THE EYES OF THE BLIND SHALL BE OPENED TO TODD<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Todd on the front porch. Todd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the side yard of ecstasy and earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd walking our beagle-named Ray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd in new boots, in patches of grass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in a waltz of fog on the same path that tornado<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tore beside our one bedroom house, house<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of broken blinds, of doors that won’t latch,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

roof made of tin-tornado from when<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halloween night fell from the sky<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in South Mississippi and left us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

reeling hymns in the bathtub till morning,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

mildew, mattress, iron and rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd in the long, undefiled light of morning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

blue slippers which didn’t fit,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which he gifted to me, and our 70 dollar ceramic heater\u00ad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which was carefully researched for efficiency<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to avoid tempting dust motes from the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd on the couch we bought from Goodwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd reading Yahoo for football news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd pissed off about a fumble,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

chugging 8 Coors the night before<\/p>\n\n\n\n

before chucking a half empty can<\/p>\n\n\n\n

at a speaker by the big screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elegiac curve of Todd’s lips in steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd singing Elvis in the shower. The kitten licking<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd’s knees, beads of water and soap, knees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which to this day won\u2019t heal right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd’s father who used to have a temper,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

who lashed out in a game of Monopoly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in a childlike rage in a rickety house in Georgia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where Todd asked if we could live together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd in a horse-drawn carriage, Todd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in a haunted square in Savannah<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where Spanish moss won’t grow anymore,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where the bodies of infants were burned<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and their mothers wept and my own mother<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thinks our marriage might never happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd’s shoulders slackening while he reads<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faulkner by the window, surrounded<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by his animals, his fingers tapping the sill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skill of Todd’s hands. What they ask of my body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd waiting while I grind the coffee,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd claiming I never do the dishes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wishing I’d be more social, less negative,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd spreading apple butter over<\/p>\n\n\n\n

every cracker in my life, coddling me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for each bruise I acquire, lifting my wrists,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and turning them toward the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THEY WRITE DIED AT THE SCENE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

not charred alive some holiday night,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

not stuck in the car while flames reached<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the peak of the pine trees. Todd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

saw it first, but we might’ve passed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the fire by. Todd loves his mother,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

told her all about my mother,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

her turkey and gravy, all things<\/p>\n\n\n\n

beautifully dull. Todd didn’t want<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to be the guy who didn’t pull over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd ran through the reeds–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandi Nicol<\/em>e, <\/em>wait far me<\/em>—<\/em>to help<\/p>\n\n\n\n

other men drag bodies from the pyre,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that mass of melted tire and metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I waited years ago-my own body<\/p>\n\n\n\n

singed in a ditch, wet grass, smell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of my leg, my contused brain,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

collapsing over and over until<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the ambulance came, and I still don’t know<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what I didn’t know then-why men run,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how one girl can plunge through glass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

while another’s left to burn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In school, we measured our words,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

each syllable a chorus of force and lyric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That single beat, the weight of Todd’s name<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stress even now. They never got all three<\/p>\n\n\n\n

people out. We later made it home,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and I tell you, there will always be patterns,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

rhythm, some strong motion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

at the edge of this world. I will always<\/p>\n\n\n\n

smell smoke in the air. Todd, forever<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sleeping next to me. Thorns from the side<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the highway still caught in our jeans.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3495"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37658,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions\/37658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}