Emily R. Daniel

Estranged

“you know love when you see it, you can feel its lunar strength, its brutal pull”

-- Dorianne Laux, from Facts About the Moon

she looks like my mother

as if I have a need

to recall her and I

find a likeness

in a crowd

not pretty

like mom, not

trying

her mouth crinkled

around cigarette’s tight tip

nicotine ringing in her voice

not like mom whose alto

is untouched by tar

a voice never raised

above a forte

maybe it’s the pair

of Jackie Kennedy eyes

set far apart

boasting their range

how wide their holding

brown turning amber

in spotlight

or it’s the square jawline

soft underside of her chin

when her head tilts back

full-throated

though mom’s laugh does not

crackle like hers

I want to be

the reason for it

just the same

Bio

Emily R. Daniel's debut chapbook, Life Line, was selected as a winner of the Celery City Chapbook contest and published in 2019. Emily's work has been published online in The Bangalore Review, Sylvia Magazine, and Sixfold. She is a non-traditional creative writing student at Western Michigan University and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Emily lives in Kalamazoo, MI with her family. For more information about Emily and her work, visit www.emilyrdaniel.com.