Lauren Badillo Milici "On the Last Good Night" — THE SHORE
On the Last Good Night
before you left & I left
and the mountains soured everything—
rain came down on that weird little hill
where your father built a house
and I, the last good woman, proof of myth,
carried you off to bed, of course.
god sent a flood, you said.
then a plague, then a fire. sins and all that. apples.
do you know it? I only know what you never
told me: how the body must starve before
it’s small enough to take
the shape of leaving.
Lauren Badillo