Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “Bone Appendix” by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write a letter about growing pains to your child self.”

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

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Please join us for our next session Friday September 13th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Bone Appendix by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

After Alexandra Petrova

Trace your son’s left hand
           against construction paper
                     with a nontoxic marker,

           teaching him the edges
of his bones. Then fill
            the space between

                     with what shines
           or powders, glitter,
crushed cheerios, flecks

           of skin even, teaching him
                     his bones remain
           in spite of it. Let him try

to fit his fingers in the contours,
           teaching him his bones
                      keep growing. And when

           he makes two fists, afraid
his body can’t keep up
           with what’s inside, clenching

                      hard as teeth to keep his bones
           just as they are, to keep them
from sprouting out, tell him

           of  Ukraine’s oldest apple tree
                      that grows its branches
           low into the ground

until they drink the soil—
           an indiscernible colony
                      of roots or eternally new trees.

           And when he falls
asleep pressed to your chest,
           trace his right hand

                      against the tree-house
           rib cage it first grew, teaching him
the endlessness of bones.

Source: Poetry (December 2019)