This is the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn
art by Helen Hofling
by Becca Klaver
never
in my lucky
& luxurious
erased &
belittled
american life
have I ever
been so relieved
to be uterus-
less
though
who’s to say
it wasn’t
america
her waters
flush with
estrogen
& fertilizer
that fed the
fibroids
that made
the pain
that etherized me
upon the table
who’s to say
the house
america built
didn’t cast
my tissue
a-wandering
in the classic
pioneering
hysterical style
little slivers
of womb
pricking &
doubling over
a body
cornfed
dairy-fattened
lucky
warm
safe
& free
Becca Klaver is the author of the poetry collections *LA Liminal* (Kore Press, 2010), *Empire Wasted* (Bloof Books, 2016), and *Ready for the World* (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), as well as several chapbooks. Her latest publications are *Midwinter Constellation* (Black Lawrence, 2022), a
collaborative homage to Bernadette Mayer’s *Midwinter Day,* and *Greetings from Bowling Green *(The Magnificent Field, 2022), a chapbook of postcard poems. As an editor, she co-founded Switchback Books, co-edited the anthology *Electric Gurlesque* (Saturnalia Books), and created projects such as Women Poets Wearing Sweatpants https://womenpoetswearingsweatpants.tumblr.com/. She lives in Iowa City.
Helen Hofling is a Baltimore-based writer, editor, and artist. Her work has appeared in Epiphany, Gulf Coast, The Hopkins Review, Prelude, the Seneca Review, and elsewhere. She is a member of the PEN Prison and Justice Writing Project, and she teaches writing at Loyola University Maryland. www.helenhofling.com.
