Karyn Lie-Nielsen

VOICE*

Listen to Audio Version.

Trembling against my hands
like the top of the radio, mine
quivers along the bones of my face.

Cat has the same voice.
And bells. Touch one tenderly,
a song shivers over the cool surface.

Mother says it’s ear waves. Vibrations.
She moves her mouth and shows her open hand
waving like "hello" or "good-bye"

or "finish" in sign language.
I touch her face, the bones hum
like leaves in the row of maples.

When I open my mouth
and move my lips, my jaw wide, like hers
freeing the vibrations to make my ears wave,

my mother holds me quick
as if stopping a bell with both hands.
In sign language she waves "Finish."

* * *

HOW I LEARNED TO TALK

Listen to Audio Version.

1.
A dry mewling, a want,
the press of my mother’s body,
breeze of my father’s hands
like wings above my face.
A cocoon of thought squirms
curled like faraway fingers
swathed in close-knit mittens.

2.
My grandmother sits with my deaf mother
teaching her to say my name properly.
Over and over my name my name.
My mother’s palm open
before her mouth takes a breeze of air,
her hand presses her neck,
long fingers cradle her chin
as she purses, pouts, mews, and grins
like storybook pictures at bedtime.
Watching through the bars of my crib
I sense a moth sputtering behind my lips
until the creature suddenly flies out,
Karyn Karyn on surprised wings.

*Handbuzz and Other Poems from which these poems are taken is review in this issue of Wordgathering.

Karyn Lie-Nielsen lives in mid-coast Maine where she writes poetry, short stories, and personal essays. Her work has appeared both online and in printed journals. Handbuzz and Other Voices, her first book, is the 2015 winner of the Damfino Press Afternoonified Chapbook contest. Raised by deaf parents, she has taught American Sign Language, worked as an interpreter for the Deaf, and performed with the National Theater of the Deaf. She holds an MFA from the University of Maine’s Stonecoast Writing Program. Visit karynlie-nielsen.com to see some of her ASL translations.