Joselia Rebekah Hughes’ “JAW[N]BONE SOUP” (The Poetry Project)

JAW[N]BONE SOUP

JAWNBONE SOUP

In kitchen’s habit, I rite a roll of what the poem could read. This roll to recipient as receipt to recipe. I have a slight lisp overcompensated for though tireless exercise. Disable bodywork to lifepractice. Who is iyoi practicing for? All right, troupe, let’s stitch a zoot and pitch our jawns to jawbone soup!

What assembles gravity in a grief lock?

Three anemic toys called trinkets, 11 dashes of dope, 14 splashes called sink drinks N95 wishes in soap. A beer can in a gutter, a mothball in her wink, a map free in a stutter, a toolkit to her think. Six months shrunk in by pain that five milligrams P.O. seek to close, 22 prospects to an utter, one iwei stitched in by clothes. Weiyo can remember an us blow to our blouse. Spike spears, never captured, return to sender. Do iwei tongue muscle in weiyo mouth?

Writing Prompt: Sourcing from the depth of an experienced grief and the height of a desired hope, write a recipe to bridge grief and grieving with/in/to hope and hoping. Include numerals for added verisimilitude. When added, numerals in one stanza must equal 123 and numerals in another stanza must equal 11, 22 or 33. The entire poem or work, including title, must be palindromic in word count. (e.g. 151 words, 232 words)

This week’s issue is produced in partnership with the Poetry Project.


Joselia Rebekah Hughes

Joselia Rebekah Hughes is a writer and artist based in New York. She has orated and exhibited work at The Strand, Bronx Art Space, Participant Inc., The Poetry Project, National Sawdust, Gibney Dance Studio and elsewhere. Her writing has been published in Apogee Journal, The Poetry Project, Ocean State Review and Jewish Currents.