Poetry by Audrey Gidman

               ​patrick yagow CC




notes on letting it go

dear body / sweating beer & / mystery

broken clock / calling drunk after midnight

dear body who drew blood

you knew where to look / to find someone / like me

dear love / who never stayed / long

dear love / I wanted

dear wounded little boy

you kept me close / enough to touch / sometimes

lover / turning over / in the bed

I tried to get it / right

I asked good questions

dear shipwreck

dear empty locket

the flowers / never grew

I watered / & watered 





ode 

my grandmother said braid your hair tight
my grandmother said be quiet
my grandmother said bring him his breakfast
my grandmother said sit still she said smile
my grandmother said chin up chin up
my grandmother said bring him his lunch
my grandmother said save bags bread ties anything useful she said
my grandmother said powder blue walls and statues of sailors
my grandmother said black tea with milk in a powder blue mug
my grandmother said keep an umbrella in the car she said storm
my grandmother said you are my october girl
my grandmother said keep an empty canvas close she said paint yourself standing
my grandmother said bring him his supper
my grandmother said hang crystals in the windows she said keep busy
my grandmother said dove soap 
my grandmother said wipe everything clean
my grandmother said keep busy she said count the rainbows on the walls
my grandmother said no need to cry
​

​

Audrey Gidman is a queer poet living in central Maine. Her poems can be found or are forthcoming in The West Review, époque press, FEED, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. She received her BFA from the University of Maine Farmington. Her chapbook, body psalms, winner of the Elyse Wolf Prize, is forthcoming from Slate Roof Press.

---