The Origin of Thirst
Elizabeth Threadgill | Poetry
long before my father was my father
my mother was a lake
everything that existed was water
we are floating things
who drink our mothers
tied up in strings
we sleep like eggs
folded in on ourselves
then we open flowers
mother silk and fever
the door is helpless
the doctor’s will
is to deliver us
into the world that did not exist
Elizabeth Threadgill holds an MFA in Poetry and a PhD in Developmental Education-Literacy, both from Texas State University. She is from Marfa, Texas, and now lives in upstate New York, where she is an Associate Professor of English at Utica University. Her poetry also appears in Poet Lore, The Offing, Fugue, Radar Poetry, DIALOGIST, Small Orange, and elsewhere.