Throat

by Michelle Patton

Jason Hawke

I come from a family of throat clearers The tensing and tightening of the neck Before they speak, a gathering of rivers. I’d hear my dad blow his nose and hack Several times a day, a comical musette From the master bath. No one said allergies. It was simple snot made of simple sweat And the dust of everyday, a hard work alchemy Of what must be done, a commandment to survive. Sometimes now I feel them, my kin, my clan My tribe swimming up through sedimented lives, Up through Oklahoma, Texas, and Oregon land Through all the generations of tenderness and grief To gather in my throat and sing before I speak.

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Michelle Patton’s poems have been published in Zyzzyva, Southern Poetry Review, Dying Dahlia Review, and others. She teaches English at Fresno City College.