after Laura Grothaus
We were at the 60-minute photo center
waiting for her funeral picture to process,
when dad said, towards the end all she said
was God. I was God, soup was God, if you
were there, you would also be God
and I wondered if in her language-
thinning head she saw us as creatures of stone
she was habituated to bow her head in front of
or mythical beasts with wings and wish fulfilling
fables. Then, there she was, out of the dark
room, developed on glossy paper. We said, yes
or ok, had it rolled up without a nostalgic glance,
how we would henceforth headnod grief.
***
Preeti Vangani is an Indian poet & personal essayist. She is the author of Mother Tongue Apologize (RLFPA Editions), her first book of poems (winner of RL India Poetry Prize.) Her work has been published in BOAAT, Gulf Coast, Threepenny Review among other journals. She is the Poetry Editor for Glass, a Poet Mentor at Youth Speaks and holds an MFA (Writing) from University of San Francisco.
***
image: Sheldon Birnie
Rejection Letters 