Issue 11: Winter 2017
The Winter 2017 issue of Mangrove Journal is an online-only edition. Print books of select Spring issues are available on the University of Miami Coral Gables campus for a suggested donation of $5-$10 to the Creative Writing Program. Please contact mangrovejournal@gmail.com for more information.
Words to a Bad Southern Child
ascending
warned open drawers
you had to touch
the tiny snowglobe
of opals
in grandmother’s chest
steady until the bottommost
rung gave
and you saved yourself
from the crash
of the iridescence
that she loved more than anything
but you,
when the willows bend
to the point of
whipping you
back to the dirt of your grandmother
you’ll wonder
which twig
she’d have you choose
to break
that appaloosa skin
and when you would cry
that southern apology
from your knees to the
earth, grand
asked which hurt you
worse, being
struck or striking
a strong woman
from the blue feet
of the tarry ridge
go on
and select a switch
to crack over her
back just so.
Elizabeth Valverde
Elizabeth Valverde is an undergraduate student at Columbia University
majoring in creative writing. Her work has appeared in Surgam and she
recently became a named scholar after being designated as the recipient
of the Vidda Foundation award for the 2012-2013 academic year. A writer
of both poetry and prose, Elizabeth seeks to create a melange of things
both haunting and peculiar with ever-present whimsy at the helm of the
word. Elizabeth cites her daughter, Estella, as her muse and one true love.
