Brittany Gress

Medicine

To boil milk, a tricky business, the skin

of the skin of the skin.

That little island of surrender.

Fathoms, superstructures, the magnetic

twist of sorrow,

All soft and spilled,

a distant breath,

the masterful chorus of

coming home.

I Can Tell You How Your Little Girl Grows Old

I can tell you how your little girl grows old.

By the time she’s ten, she has lived

a thousand fourth grades.

A thousand ways to be dirtied by the sand under

little girls’ feet.

When her teachers send her home, she asks you

if mercy means one stone instead of two.

Sometimes when she opens her mouth,

the voice that comes out

is your father’s,

and his father’s,

and all of your fathers

forever.

Brittany Gress is an award-winning visual artist and poet based in Orlando, Florida. Her twin passions for nature and storytelling fuel her work across mediums to create projects that embrace the lyrical, the magnetic, and the mysterious. Follow her on Instagram @brittanyagress

Brittanygress.com