by Laura Washburn
Once there was a woman who bore only girl babies.
Every night she dreamed of wolves, they ran
toward her like shadows of the moon
and she never saw their glittering fangs in starlight,
though she knew they were there.
She only bore girl babies
and dreamt some nights of the wolves,
like ice floes, drifting toward her.
Once she dreamed that she was a wolf,
Who bore only girl pups
and the pack followed her,
dark like the night, but the pups disappeared.
She felt cold then
like a mother whose children are gone before sun.
She bore only girl babies
and dreamt in the night of wolves,
snow, and a cry from a peak
to the moon.
Laura Washburn’s poem originally appeared in The Dominion Review, Barely South Review’s ancestor, back in 1987 (Issue. No. 5). Thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries for allowing access to their full archive of The Dominion Review.
***
Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and the author of This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March Street) and Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook Prize). Her poetry has appeared in such journals as Cavalier Literary Couture, Carolina Quarterly,Ninth Letter, The Sun, Red Rock Review, and Valparaiso Review. She was an editor of Dominion Review sometime around 1986 or 1987. Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, she has also lived and worked in Arizona and in Missouri. She is married to the writer Roland Sodowsky, plays an active role in the activites of her local NOW chapter, and is one of the founders and the Co-President of the Board of SEK Women Helping Women. https://www.facebook.com/sekwhw