nectar poetry

TANIA DONATTO

title: photographs are not for remembering poem: Grandma’s closet, brown boxes are stacked from old to new. I grab the the first. The quaintest, not living long enough to grow more than the one beneath. Sepia birthday party, peeling edges, barely in color, slips to the linoleum. Don’t cry over spilled memory. But this was different. It was easy to grasp the glossy grins of my youth and the matte imagery that made me. But when I arrived in time’s moment to the largest, I was not so lucky. Strangers’ faces flooded through my hands. I’m a stranger. I am a stranger to my own lineage. This brave box was older. Wizened, with weaker walls from upholding others. Placed there first. Most time to forget. The contents, eyes I don’t recognize. Bodies, black and white, buried in cardboard here. The contents: buried under a familiar substance, more natural. Sometimes images are buried with the body. Do they last long? Do they fade? Decay. The memories, the faces I neglect but crave to know are in someone’s mind, but not in mine.
title: stockholm syndrome: I am both parties poem: Marble table in the dining room cradles my contemplations; today’s special, the slate serves a single blade to me. The knife deserted after dinner, the sheen winks. The iron and onyx swirl underneath, hypnotize. I lean towards it, almost falling for the peaceful eye and the serrated amenity. I swim in the ebony and silver, stare into my likeness. Drift to yesterday. Sitting in my office chair, my skull pressed against the beige wall, my parents performed blame by a thousand screams. I wanted to plunge through the paint, the dead forest in between. To plummet into a portal, lead in my wonderland. This is not so different from now. My appeal to float on the threshold is satisfied. Caution: too long, and it will crumble into salt. So, I thread my prayers and sew them into the scarlet jacket.

TaNia Donatto is a poet from Southeast Texas and a current undergraduate student at Stanford University. She intends on majoring in engineering but has a deep love for poetry. Her other interests include dance, theater, learning from people’s stories, and accessibility in education. She also has work in or forthcoming in Neuro Logical, Capsule Stories, and 433 Magazine. TaNia can be found on Instagram and Twitter @taniadonatto_ .

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