By Flapper Press Poetry Café:
The Flapper Press Poetry Café continues to support poets from around the globe and takes great pride in featuring their new work. We continue our new series called Poetry Spotlight in which poets are invited to entice readers with a look into their latest work along with some of the poet's insight, inspirations, and their favorite lines of poetry from their books.
This week, we've invited Melissa Fite Johnson to share his favorite lines from her new poetry book, Midlife Abecedarian.
Melissa Fite Johnson is the author of three full-length collections: Green, A Crooked Door Cut into the Sky, While the Kettle's On, and, most recently, Midlife Abecedarian (Riot in Your Throat, 2024). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Pleiades, HAD, Whale Road Review, SWWIM, and elsewhere. Melissa teaches high school English in Lawrence, KS, where she and her husband live with their dogs.
Midlife Abecedarian
by Melissa Fite Johnson
At the antique mall with a friend,
buried in a bin: a Florence Griffith Joyner doll,
comes with a full set of nail stickers. I read once that
during a race her nail flew off; after it
ended she walked the track to
find it. Her miniature wears a one-legged bodysuit, neon
green and pink, the detail I most associate with
her. My friend asks if she’s still alive. I look
it up—no, 1998, seizure in her sleep,
just before her 39th birthday. I only now, in midlife,
know how young that is to die. When I was
little, forty was my father’s scratchy cheek,
my mother’s face cream. Forty was inevitable. Death had
not yet entered my mind, though soon I’d learn. My
old babysitter, my classmate whose father skidded
past the stop sign one winter, Anne Frank, Titanic, I couldn’t
quit learning death. I’m still learning it,
researching even the slightest
symptoms, wondering each birthday how much more
time. I set down Flo-Jo’s cardboard home. My friend holds
up another doll. I look this one up too, déjà
vu, only she’s alive, Billie Jean King,
white tennis dress with blue Peter Pan collar,
x number of years left. Next month, I’ll turn forty. Well—
you never really know. I should. 4-0. In tennis, the
zero is love. 40-love. I would love to turn forty.
Poem first published in SWWIM, October 20, 2023
From Melissa Fite Johnson:
One of my favorite poems is the title poem of this book, which first appeared in SWWIM. Abecedarians are my favorite form; I love the challenge of trying to keep to a form while sounding as natural as possible. There are a lot of form poems in this book (three abecedarians, two villanelles, a pantoum, a ghazal, etc.), and I appreciate how those forms push me in new directions.
Here are two lines I like, one sweeter, one more painful, and you can choose the vibe:
Sweeter lines, from "Midlife Abecedarian":
. . . "When I was little, forty was my father’s scratchy cheek, my mother’s face cream."
A more painful line, from "Deciphering Grief" (which appeared in Pleiades):
"My mother’s face a full moon, white. How could I? Well, how could she?"
In this book, I'm exploring what it means to be in midlife. I'm looking back as much as forward. Both of those lines are about my childhood, which was in equal parts comforting and unbearable. And honestly, some of that comfort came from not knowing any better—not knowing my father would die when I was sixteen, not knowing my mother and I would eventually become estranged. Honestly, I didn't even know about the estrangement when I wrote this book; it'll be part of the next one, eventually. But every version of myself I've ever been or ever will be is in this book, somehow tucked in these pages.
I hope readers will enjoy my honesty, my authenticity, my determination to choose what my life will be. For me, at least, midlife has been a beautiful time of finally realizing my worth and how I want to be treated. In many ways, it's been the most joyful time of my life so far—it's certainly been the time I've been the most comfortable in my skin and the happiest with my life and my choices. I think that joy comes through even more than the pain does.
To paraphrase Whitman (and I have three poems devoted to Whitman in this book), we all contain multitudes.
The Flapper Press Poetry Café
We welcome submissions from poets for the Flapper Press Poetry Café Poetry Spotlight series. We are always looking for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors.
Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. Please review our guidelines before submitting. By submitting your work to Flapper Press, you agree to allow us permission to publish. Please note that we receive numerous submissions throughout the year and endeavor to publish as soon as our calendar allows.
Comentários