Letter Written In A Raven's Fist by Ash Bowen
Braven Hand, whose beak-like nose earned him the nickname of “Raven,” was hanged for the
murder of his lover, Pattismith Oakes, in Tinsman, Arkansas in 1887. Letters written to Oakes’
family were later found to be forgeries that Hand had written in an effort to prove that she was
still alive. Inexplicably, many of the letters speak of her being held against her will.
Mother—
I’ve made myself into a sea my husband cannot
pilot. The nights he paddles across my body, I turn my stomach
into a storm of rocks rising from the waters. I clabber
my mouth with milk before he comes to kiss, ignore
the figs he brings for me to freshen the bite
of my breath. Ten times he’s capsized our bed searching
for a son but I’ve drowned every seed he’s put inside of me.
Whenever he leaves, I cast my fingers over the lands
I’ve found hidden in his maps—countries smaller than my hands
but close enough to row to. Each time he returns,
he finds me huddled before the shore—staring
past the ships that slap against the fence, the ocean
he’s somehow boarded up.
Art by Kaori Takara Recommended listening: Movement I: Awakening - Maneli Jamal Links of the Day: Tombstone Generator Reckoning with Pop Art’s Irrepressible Popularity Ten Cinematic Love Letters To Cities Inventive Series of Postcards made with Coffee Marks