Expecting

My mother birthed nine bodies
buried a belly in babies that when she finally breathed empty
her walls forgot how to stand ripples of skin
folding into each other an embrace of bruising
which was born from life carried in nine bodies
nine bodies now bigger than the bones of my mother
she prayed blessing before birth and bound our survival
to the hands of a creator she never knew how to question

Annalee Fairley

Originally from Mississippi, Annalee is a queer poet that currently lives in Roanoke, VA. Over her writing career, her poetry has been published in Ink & Nebula, Apricity Magazine, The Black Fork Review, and Hellbender Magazine. She has been awarded the Gager Fellowship, Neill James Creative Writing Scholarship, and the Betty Killebrew Literary Award for her poetry and fiction. She currently works as a librarian