Vixen Lessons
by Ellen Kombiyil
even dead Aunt Blanche
at the dining table séance
predicted I’d get killed by a bus
only mama said it wasn’t so
her flannel robes flapping
open in summer
you’re fine she said
fine as a goose-down pillow
I cashed a check
for my first stilettos
on S. Salina
at the discount store
traipsing kitchen hip-swing
and tossed-back hair
sprayed mint on my tongue
and soaked orange peels
overnight on the sill—
none of them thought
I’d turn out right
at the dining table séance
predicted I’d get killed by a bus
only mama said it wasn’t so
her flannel robes flapping
open in summer
you’re fine she said
fine as a goose-down pillow
I cashed a check
for my first stilettos
on S. Salina
at the discount store
traipsing kitchen hip-swing
and tossed-back hair
sprayed mint on my tongue
and soaked orange peels
overnight on the sill—
none of them thought
I’d turn out right
Ellen Kombiyil is the author of Histories of the Future Perfect (2015) and the micro chapbook Avalanche Tunnel (2016). She is a co-Founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, a mentorship-model press publishing emerging poets from India and the diaspora, and teaches creative writing at Hunter College. Recent work has appeared in diode, Pleiades, and Plume.
Ellen Kombiyil is the author of Histories of the Future Perfect (2015) and the micro chapbook Avalanche Tunnel (2016). She is a co-Founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, a mentorship-model press publishing emerging poets from India and the diaspora, and teaches creative writing at Hunter College. Recent work has appeared in diode, Pleiades, and Plume.
