dead sibling club
by Mia S. Willis
after lucille clifton.
a sibling once myself
i have a feeling for it
that’s why i can talk
about environment
my father last of three boys
never knew
another twelve fingered conjurer
i last of two girls
give him the story
a root woman named lucille
somewhere
four severed pinkies finally touch
it all comes down to
presence absence in the end
we don’t call
a single tree a forest
a single finger a fist
a single child a family
the question becomes
what are
we now
a sibling once myself
i have a feeling for it
that’s why i can talk
about environment
my father last of three boys
never knew
another twelve fingered conjurer
i last of two girls
give him the story
a root woman named lucille
somewhere
four severed pinkies finally touch
it all comes down to
presence absence in the end
we don’t call
a single tree a forest
a single finger a fist
a single child a family
the question becomes
what are
we now
Mia S. Willis is a Black queer poet, music producer, popular educator, and cultural historian from Charlotte, North Carolina. Their poetry has been featured by The Slowdown, Palette Poetry, The Offing, the minnesota review, and others. Mia has received fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation, La Maison Baldwin, The Watering Hole, Lambda Literary, and Chashama’s ChaNorth. They are the author of monster house. (Jai-Alai Books), the 2018 winner of Cave Canem’s Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize. Mia’s debut collection, the space between men, is a winner of the 2023 National Poetry Series Competition and will be published by Penguin in fall 2024. Connect with them on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram (@poetinthehat).