MENTORSHIP RECIPIENT

Mentor Commentary:
​Ali Black

Recipient Reflection: 
Annie Cigic

Inadequacy

Poetry by ​​Annie Cigic

I am not the sum of two parts.
How much of myself should I give?
 
Until I am sweating the milk out
that I couldn’t give. Until I can pull
 
the aromas of almond & rose
off of my breasts & hope
 
you will feed yourself.
If you love
 
you give it up, forget it,
& move on with your life.
 
The floorboards are on fire.
I dance around—balloons tied
 
to my fingers. Down the street
they’re building a church
 
& they made sure the cross went
first. Remind me how to confess.
 
Believe this sorrow, I want to reveal
my twisted womb. 

Annie Cigic
​
Annie Cigic hails from Cleveland. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Bookends Review, The Hunger, Silver Needle Press, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University and will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing this fall.