Alyx Chandler

Make a Fuss (My Mom Tells Me Again)

with lips that thunder
after me      vocal cords

that wake the dead

in every womanless room where speaking
       is like eating dryer sheets

she demands of me

louder
again but         L  O  U  D  E  R

sing against
silence             let confidence ring: a barbed tongue
       chattering
       for release

I become mouthy

                    my words
shards from a shook-up soda can
                    spitting and exploding

                    slicing
the truth                   I speak—

pulling promises              from my mom’s teeth.

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Alyx Chandler (she/her) is a writer from the South who received her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana, where she was a Richard Hugo Fellow and taught composition and poetry. Her poetry was a finalist for the Michelle Boisseau Poetry Prize with Bear Review and can be found in the Southern Poetry Anthology, Cordella Magazine, Greensboro Review, Sweet Tree Review, and elsewhere.