Everyone has that point–
a moment when their branch
went one way
not the other
Perhaps a decade
pain averted
seven scars
and countless procedures
erased
undone
I don’t need
an alternate ending
to know
what didn’t kill me
didn’t make me stronger
it broke me apart
First a blow
like an axe
to a log
then
a carving knife
whittled away
until
I was a toothpick–
the frame
that buckles precariously
under this messy and glorious
lean-to of life–
the only possible one
᠅
Mara Lovelock (she/her) is an emerging poet whose work explores trauma, illness, bisexuality, nature, and motherhood. She facilitates a community mindfulness and meditation group and is at work on a memoir-in-poems manuscript. Her work has appeared in Gnashing Teeth Publishing’s Poem of the Day and is forthcoming in
Stanchion’s Elegant Variations and Third Moon Press's anthology
The Museum of Human Hearts. Originally from East Tennessee, she lives in Santa Clara, CA with her husband and 4-year-old son. IG: @
maralovelockpoetry