Poetry

Cate Lycurgus, a finalist in Narrative’s Sixth Annual Poetry Contest, received a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from Indiana University. She lives south of San Francisco, California, where she teaches professional writing to aspiring accountants.

Sweet Girl and Other Poems

by Cate Lycurgus


Sweet Girl

despite creases banding my neck, a book
at the bar, or dim sum for one, I have walked

infinite blocks pushing the pram of you, marking
fine-veined & calyxed things as if to call each


quince to fruiting with my recognition, mouthing
name after name—still, yours I need to learn so


tell me sweet girl, how to greet you—since
my mamma doesn’t believe in you or in my ability


to bear another being—I try to tell her
I have miles, marathons, behind me, ahead—


that I am far from done & will run to the ends
of service roads; steady, then slow over potted


ramps, lean for the merge in curlicues, will bow
convex to interstates, that no state can wreck an all-out


love—she says I am in vain
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