Nicole Stander

A Biography of Wildflowers

I came to love the way a foal comes to galloping,
limbs slopped origami under the innate threat of predation.
I orbited men who collared my neck with Milky Way bruises
twinkling like urban fireflies, men reverberating my father
when his hunky limbs punctured Sheetrock and I my mother
the drywaller. When lucky enough to be lonely, I puppeted
my body onto scaly asphalt, lizarded my kneecaps and clanged
putters to my eyes, berried welts onto the twisted organ-
bearer of myself. First went the bison plentiful as clouds
then fell the tall grasses, kneeling to farm grooms in deep rooted
prayer for flood season. Then crumpled the Black-Eyed Susans,
embarrassed to admit they withstood lovers’ blows like prairie
gusts. Perhaps if I were taller and more good, I would knead
my love instinct into a birthmark shaped like a wadded fist.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Nicole Stander is a poet pursuing an MFA in fiction at University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Mississippi Review, Calyx and Midway Journal. She resides in Omaha with her partner.