Amy Riddell

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Attachment Theory

Chopped from the root,
her foot

held a memory of
painted nails and aching arches,

her remaining stump,
a thing to carry

in place of me,
how she’d limp away

as I called Mama
from my crib,

my tiny body
wanting only

to ride her hip
like a carousel.

I was just a scrap
of song

she wouldn’t hum,
her mouth

an empty room:
I love you’s

shredded like
yellowing wallpaper,

my smooth mirror
edges untouched.

At the kitchen sink,
lopsided, leaning

too far to one side,
her back turned

against me,
my name,

she lets the mason
jar once filled with

watercolor brushes
and dreams slip

from her hand
and shatter.

Maybe it’s too late
to piece together

the torn skin
of what could

have been. Maybe
the jar is simply

no longer a jar,
just a handful

of loose glass,
as if attachment

only needs a dab
of crazy glue

and a kiss.

Amy Riddell is author of a full-length poetry collection, Bullets in the Jewelry Box (FutureCycle) and two chapbooks, Prayer of Scalpel & Ash, (Rockwood Press) and Narcissistic Injury (Pudding House). A Pushcart nominee, Amy’s poems have appeared in various journals, including South Florida Poetry Journal, The Inflectionist Review, Quartet Journal, ONE ART,  RockPaperPoem, Philly Chapbook Review, and Rust & Moth