Christina Veladota

Self-Portrait as Clarissa Dalloway

Flowers forgive us our fumbled years:
I am mother to this illusion.

Your voice is the loud
hush of the night
escaping as your grief’s
late husbandry
kicks at its fences.

Wisdom is the fabric
she tears apart with her teeth.

Christina Veladota is a 2014 recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Award.