ON FEELING

the summer my mother lost the feeling in her arms
was the summer all of my eyelashes grew back
i remember my father grabbing a snake by its tail
and cutting the copper head with garden shears
logan who is dead now asks my mother what kind
of snakes live in ohio
could she really not feel her fingers
when she held the dead copper head
to show us what we should stay away from
i felt it
when the head hit the grass with a silent thud somewhere
behind my eyelashes and above, inside my throat
this is how a good thing ends—
i stop pulling out my lashes because i am tired
of punishing myself for being human
because the snake is killed for its being a snake
where does the feeling end
if it’s lost in her arms where can the pain go?

Caitie L. Young (they/she) is a poet and fiction writer in Kent, Ohio. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Luna Negra, Welter, the Santa Fe Writers Project, and the Minnesota Review. They are studying poetry in the NEOMFA program.