LABYRINTHIAN
HALI SOFALA-JONES
As girls we spent long days in the red warmth of autumn,
stealing relics of our mother’s life to carry with us on our own journey.
We built homes for ourselves on the front porch, smuggled everyday
items: irons, skillets, and brooms. We grew bulbous with pillows
and sheets strapped snug to our pre-pubescent bodies.
In the yard, we imagined ourselves older women, married women with houses,
laundry, and children of our own. We knew nothing of dark colors bleeding
in the wash or babies being born into silence. We could not imagine our own
parents aging alongside us, leaving us in time to take their place. If we thought
of men it was in terms of our father digging trenches across the far acres.
Or of him holding us close when lightning severed the night sky.
At night we slept side by side like slats, fitting snug into the grooves of each
other’s body. We were too young then to know the world was firing up
around us like a kiln, that the heat would break over us like fever
stealing relics of our mother’s life to carry with us on our own journey.
We built homes for ourselves on the front porch, smuggled everyday
items: irons, skillets, and brooms. We grew bulbous with pillows
and sheets strapped snug to our pre-pubescent bodies.
In the yard, we imagined ourselves older women, married women with houses,
laundry, and children of our own. We knew nothing of dark colors bleeding
in the wash or babies being born into silence. We could not imagine our own
parents aging alongside us, leaving us in time to take their place. If we thought
of men it was in terms of our father digging trenches across the far acres.
Or of him holding us close when lightning severed the night sky.
At night we slept side by side like slats, fitting snug into the grooves of each
other’s body. We were too young then to know the world was firing up
around us like a kiln, that the heat would break over us like fever
HALI F. SOFALA is a Samoan American teacher and writer from Georgia. She’s earned an MFA in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her poems have been published in Nimrod International Journal, The Bitter Oleander, CALYX, Blue Mesa Review, online at The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She is currently a Lecturer at Georgia College where she teaches courses on Multiethnic Literatures. Outside of teaching and writing, she enjoys introducing the world to her toddler, playing Assassin’s Creed, and cooking for friends and family. Her debut poetry collection, Afakasi | Half-Caste is forthcoming from Sundress Publications in 2019.
