Gabriella Belfiglio

Just Another Mountain

I am on the verge of extinction.
My frayed edges twist around
flowers, trees, and travelers.

I barely use the phone.
The days
land like rapid punches

it is unnatural.  A deadness—
ash and air—defy gravity
warm up, get ready

finally send me down
where I have learned to go.
Me, little stone pieces of Etna

solid rock and dirt.
I want the earth to shift
send me swirling.





Envy                                                                      

At first I enjoyed the little house.
So different from my massive castle with
its walls full of mirrors and frigid stares.

But soon I got tired of doing all the dishes,
making all the beds, cooking every meal,
and I felt           so lonely.

The little men were gone all day and
once home they were exhausted and grumpy;
all they would do was sit by the fire, smoke their pipes.

Every day it was the same.
So when the old peddler woman came
with shiny new laces, I could not resist.

She reminded me of my sweet nursemaid,
who each morning would wrap me in beautiful colors:
ebony black to match my hair,

blood red to match my lips,
sky blue to match my eyes,
and snow white to match my skin.

The second time she came, I knew it had to be           
another trick, but I wanted her attention,          
and as she held the ivory comb in front of me

I couldn’t recall the last time someone brushed my hair.
As she picked through my knots and curls—
I felt loved.

Days, weeks, months passed.
I dreamt of snowflakes like feathers,
a needle pricking a pregnant woman’s finger,

the lung and liver of a slaughtered boar,
and always large eyes,        glaring.
The third time she came,

I was ready.  She held the apple                                              
so round on the platter of her hand.                                  
I raised it to my teeth, my final thought: at last.    



Gabriella Belfiglio's work has appeared most recently in Radius.  She was the second place winner of last years W.B. Yeats Poetry Contest. She has been published in the inaugural issue of Brooklyn Public Library’s Folio.  She has also had writing published in the award-winning anthology Poetic Voices Without Borders, as well as The Lambda Literary Review, The Dream Catcher’s Song, Avanti Popolo, Folio (American University), The Centrifugal Eye, Podium (Journal of the 92nd Street Y), C,C&D, and The Potomac Review among other places.

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