Hello there!
The Madison Review is starting a new online series showcasing exceptional work we have received that was not a good fit for the fall and spring editions. Our first piece will be “Apparitions” by Anele Rubin, a poem that explores the complex feelings of grief that comes after the loss of a loved one.
Anele Rubin’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Rattle, december, Mudfish,
Midwest Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, San Pedro River Review, Chattahoochee
Review, Raleigh Review, Miramar, New Ohio Review, and many other places. Her poetry
collection, Trying to Speak, was published by Kent State University Press. She lives in
upstate New York.
Apparitions
When our mother died
you told me
to drink a lot of tea,
that that would help her
appear to me
and I did
and she did
but in speaking of it
I would be careful
to say in my dreams
and now with no tea at all
you appear
in my dreams
breaking into them
like your calls
used to break
into my ordinary world
but not like those calls at all
except in the way
of interruption.
Now you come
not as a cry of distress
but as yourself
lit from within
or bathed in light—
crooked smile, greenish eyes,
your familiar shrug–and then
you shake your head and laugh
as if to say
what on earth was that—
that roller coaster ride
of a life?—
and I go to hug you
in my dream
and wake in your embrace.
