A Certain Kind of Forgiveness—Part II

Last month, we featured A Certain Kind of Forgiveness by Carol Kapaun Ratchenski and its primary title poem. This week, we share with you "A Certain Kind of Forgiveness - Part II" as a way to continue celebrating the open submission period for The Birdy Poetry Prize. A Certain Kind of Forgiveness is the inaugural winner of the Birdy Poetry Prize, selected and published in 2019. This poetry collection offers observations of the way we move through life; observations of the way hips move in different contexts; and other bold claims about the power of language, food, and drink. The four poems that carry the the collection title move through understandings and non-understandings between mothers, daughters, fathers, sons and grandchildren.

A Certain Kind of Forgiveness—Part II

There is a certain kind of
forgiveness between mothers
and daughters that
sons cannot understand.
So I forgive
my mother for hating herself
for weighing herself
girdling herself
wishing herself away
until she left
young and mad and beautiful
barely wrinkled
tragic with no grey hair.
The ways she shunned
her curves and all
soft tissue,
the lining of my heart
my sister's inner thigh
and my grandmother's chin.
I forgive her
for not dancing
not hugging
not squeezing
not smiling
not living
for not having a body
to call my home.

Please send us your full-length poetry manuscripts for a chance to win publication, 50 copies of your book, and $1,000! Submit your full-length poetry manuscript at birdypoetryprize.com