Hi! This is another spotlight on my amazing poet friends. Today I want to introduce Kim D. Bailey.

When I asked her for a poem to use to introduce her to you all she sent me this powerful piece, which she told me had been published in a blog. I was so tickled that she agreed to be introduced to you all. Her work is often powerful and has a strong voice  throughout it.

How To Help

by Kim D. Bailey

When momma cooked supper I washed
the dishes, while my sister dried, caressing

them like a crystal ball, and we saw
our unmapped futures. Unrequited.

Babies are made this way, we clench
our teeth hold our breath hope for more, sometimes

less. We got what we prayed for, more
than we expected. Nonrefundable.

Momma can’t wash the dishes anymore.
We wring our hands, howl at windmills, feel

the earth fall upon our skin; it clings like
molasses until we are face down. Asphyxiated.

I try to help. My words are sucked
away, my breaths are shallow. A

mountain has formed in the curve of
my spine. My chest is gravel. Scatter

me on fields of
cotton, clothe the world.

Kim D. Bailey is a 2016 Pushcart Nominee for nonfiction, and a 2018 Best of the Net Nominee for poetry. She is published in several online and print journals and in audio, including but not limited to Firefly Magazine, Tuck Magazine, The Scarlet Leaf Review, Writer’s Digest, Anti Heroine Chic, The Song Is, The 52 Men Podcast, and Tupelo Press. Kim was a columnist for Five 2 One Literary Magazine from June 2016 to October 2017, writing to Breaking the Legacy of Silence. She has also held editorial positions with Firefly Magazine and Sick Lit Magazine. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two dogs.