Sarah Detweiler, What Lies Beneath, 2018 (Artist Website, Etsy Shop)
Oil, watercolor, gouache, and embroidery thread on paper
20 x 16”
there was so much grief to go around
but the men could only grieve for themselves
grief too much for their bodies
so they hung it in the trees
my father to the crabapple
Judas to the redbud
even though they had been promised
something more than their bodies
even though they were only grieving
a body
but I didn’t dare speak of freedom now
swallowed the magnetic blue feathers
of the magpies in my mouth
helped my mother fix
dinner for my father, while the crabapple
blossoms fell away
from the kitchen window