Elinor Ann Walker

After Cave Acoustics & Chimeras

We can un-monster the Y cells
in spleens, lungs, hearts, brains,
boy-notes in mothers, genetic
refrains, so chimeras, my dears,
save your fire for the lioness days,
strike hoof on stones, as we clatter
back proof: 

beings may fissure through
us like streams, DNA strains inter-
mingle from donors of blood, marrow,
or bone. Fetal cells migrate & organ
tissues contain Y chromosomes
after we bear sons, temporarily,
or forever, 

so I, too, may be changeling, body
split twice, cries harrowing air;
calling back to me as if from the mouth
of a cave, my fierce exhalations
reverberate— 

we may be vessels for code after
code: rivers carve rocks, drop
by drop rain cisterns a bowl,
breath tendrils through flutes
made of bone, & a trace goes

whistling: 

this helix
that carries us,
binding,
unbinding,
ties in us
these so-human,
invisible
strands
like echoes
in air.

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Elinor Ann Walker (she/her) holds a PhD in English from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, lives near the mountains and prefers to write outside. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals and anthologies as Cherry Tree, Hayden's Ferry Review, Jet Fuel Review, Nimrod, Northwest Review, Pirene's Fountain, Plume and The Southern Review, among others. She has recently completed a full-length manuscript of poetry and is working on two chapbooks. Find her online at elinorannwalker.com.