INSTRUCTION
My father and I stand
in front of his bathroom mirror
He is shaving with his antique kit
He stops, looks at me
in the mirror
His child
He says, If anyone
ever steals you away
poke out
the abductor's eye
I can run, I say –
No – take your finger
and get it into his socket
behind the eye
then pull forward
MOTHER OF GOD
There was an ivory head of Mary
mounted on my father’s wall
It looked as if she was emerging
She was almost as big as me
Each night I lay in bed
and imagined her floating through
the dark house
Eyeless spirit
a tail of white
trailing behind her
Diana Arterian was born and raised in Arizona. She currently resides in Los Angeles where she is pursuing her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. She holds an MFA in poetry from CalArts, where she was a Beutner Fellow. Diana is the Managing Editor of Ricochet, a publisher of non-tradition poetry and prose chapbooks. Her own chapbook Death Centos was published by Ugly Duckling Presse, and her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming in H_NGM_N, trnsfr, and The Volta, among others.