What happened when he grabbed me at the root?
I stopped. It all stopped; spirals fought to win
My spiral life (from an unspiraled root —

From thick cigar stubbed in my young tongue’s root —
(Heart beating uncle lifetimes through my skin!)).
What happened, when he grabbed me — at the root

Where women learn to starve — our open root?
One broken body — (one more!) — broken in?
One spiral life from an unspiraled root-

Lorn pomegranate? (in the basement; root-
Torn hell of seed — as if seed might have been
What happened.) When he grabbed me at the root,

Did ancestors throw chains down through our root
To rot and winnow, with their pain and sin,
My spiral life? From an unspiraled root?

Oh sisters, keen our sisters / Till the root
Of loving! turns! (and not! from! twisted kin!)
WHAT happened (when) (he) (grabbed) me at the root?
Our spiral life! From an unspiraled root;

First published in Poetry