Mandy Brown

Birthright

We asked her how to find home,
and she lifted her hands,
exploring her palms—sure
among the calluses,the dirt, and
the blisters,
a map had always been there.

Mandy Brown (mandyalyssbrown.weebly.com) is a teacher in Central Texas, the 2013 recipient of A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Tillie Olsen Fellowship, and the author of The Sting (SweatshoppePublications, 2013).