Erica Dawson
Erica Dawson is the author of three books of poetry, most recently When Rap Spoke Straight to God (Tin House 2018). Her poems have appeared in three editions of Best American Poetry (2008, 2012, and 2015), Blackbird, Orion, The Believer, VQR, American Society: What Poets See, and other anthologies and journals. She holds a PhD from University of Cincinnati. She lives in the Baltimore-D.C. area.


While the calendar moves slowly
toward my scheduled hysterectomy


I watch my nephew read a book 
slowly, the way that children do. 
Enunciating every word.
Each letter starting somewhere deep

in the body. The heavy breath
of h, l’s forceful tongue. And I
am dumbfounded he just believes 
sounds have meaning because we say

they do. He trusts language the way 
he trusts the steady hand on the back
of his bicycle seat. Both will fail him, 
of course. The hand will let go when

he doesn’t need it anymore.
And someday he’ll be left speechless 
by a symphony, or, in his palm’s 
hollow, a firefly’s night flash.

I tell him don’t be scared of silence 
like I am, how it whispers and 
hollers. I hear him listening.
He leans in close. My breath, his breath.





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