Are you my mother?

—cried the hatchling, beginning to exhibit seeking behavior. Its mother gone silent because father— Was I, tongue-dry, just dreaming that time she pledged to leave me at the train station if I darted quick for the water fountain? He pronounced me dead in the punishment of banishment, declared they would Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.

Fall Out of Line

The neighbors mind. To eye her, they alternate spiraling the lighthouse, all their anchors moored at the coast, more oars approaching from the river fork. They part the drapes when she passes, crucifixes pulling at their throats. And unchaining their frustrations, they hold her crimes always in mind, then spit Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.

Resolution

You, sterile survivor, once hid my beauty in your power— but now I see you pretend to be whole. And you, stone statue, with an eroded smile, can only pretend you’re content. So you puddle like a tide pool on my island— though once I sunk like a pebble into Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.

Your Dying Circus

Your disease, they say, possesses its prey then rots out your bones till they crumble to dust. It stretches your canvas, tight to your frame, with a few taught threads to hold you together. Yes, under your tent, a circus pulses. Blown out through your mouth are lunch and distrust. Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.

Better to Marry than Burn

I wouldn’t refer to my first time as fire. But after reading the diary of 13-year-old me (got laid, I recorded for posterity), father invited pastor to our living room to agree over coffee that I am sexually dysfunctional. Just before I turned 14, mother waved in my face the Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.

What It Was Worth

For a while, I follow your blue eyes glowing off the stereo, then tuck myself into you, inhaling your smell, remembering our summer in my four-poster bed.  You wrapped me in your robe, we passed joints in the sunlight of my bathtub. At night, you laid your muscle under my pillow. Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.