Jessica Guzman Alderman

LA LIMPIEZA, WASHING THE TUB AT 2:00 AM

       for my mother

Quicker than vinegar,
lord, the smell, bleach

burning my hangnails,
though I haven't called you,

not once, to recall the prayer
whispered over me

when I was small
and scared of ghosts—

the dove-bone-dirt
from my shoulders

brushed, russet
on the washcloth and bucket

—I spilt no milk
those evenings or this one,

and by myself hear
the ambulance blare

on the empty street, notice
we have the same hands.

Jessica Guzman Alderman is a Florida native and the child of Cuban refugees. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Meridian, The Normal School, and Saw Palm, among other journals.