for Sydney Acosta
Photograph of the Missing Being
Jennifer TsengThe detail that pricks
Is the hand, the hand.
The hand I recognize
As yours is hers.
Not yet born, you are alive
In the photograph.
Not yet dead, she is alive
In the photograph.
What was; what will be.
Held together
By your mother’s body.
Is this holding effortless?
Is this holding a labor?
She holds the cat to her
Breast, as if practicing.
She is learning to love
You in the future:
Hold me, Mama.
I’m taller than you.
She never grew old.
The detail that pricks
Is your hand
Holding her
Picture.
Jennifer Tseng is the author of Thanks for Letting Us Know You Are Alive, poems made with her late father’s English letters, which won the Juniper Prize for Poetry.
Originally published:
March 20, 2024
Featured
Books
Renaissance Women
A new book celebrates—and sells short—Shakespeare’s sisters
Catherine Nicholson
You Might Also Like
Subscribe
New perspectives, enduring writing. Join a conversation 200 years in the making. Subscribe to our print journal and receive four beautiful issues per year.
Subscribe