Commitment

candlelight erects little harps on glass / thumb-sized ampersands
/ they show us how we belong / are broken from each
other / like paper dolls / why else did he cut my hair while I was
sleeping? / keep it from me? / as if I didn't know / to admonish
him I had to get away / up North / always the impulse / row
into the center of a lake named for a man no one
remembers / so I have to make-up a story / what choice
is there? / is there ever? / the trees tremble like my mother
in her disease / warding off the last of her demons / her
brother / a constant chill / she always told me to listen / in
several languages / escucha / ascolta / they all said girls
were good at listening / we received golden stars / coins to fill
ourselves up like piggy banks / bright toothy smiles /
it’s good to be good at something / even when it’s not true

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Nicole Greaves holds an MFA from Columbia University and an M.Ed. in special education. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary reviews and was awarded prizes by The Academy of American Poets and the Leeway Foundation of Philadelphia. She was a 2015 finalist for the Coniston Prize of Radar Poetry, who also nominated her for Best of the Net. She was a 2020 finalist for the Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest and the Dogfish Head Poetry Contest. Nicole is a former poet laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and lives right outside Philadelphia with her family, where she teaches English and creative writing. Nicole’s mother came here from Panama at the age of 17, and together they lived a life in the US that felt peripheral. Much of her work explores themes relating to this feeling, specifically the tensions around acculturation, gender roles, and class.