There’s an otherness that comes

A short contemporary poem from E.B. Johnson.

Photo by Kendall Lane on Unsplash

with losing your mother;
s e p a r a t i o n like a pane 
of glass that forever keeps 
you in another space from
t h e m. hand-clasped; arms

wrapped around eachother 
as if all time was not a factor; 
eating them pale they take 
first steps, and d e e p breaths
 and slip into the skin of wo-

manhood like a glass slipper 
meant for …