100 Percent Acrylic by Debbie Okun Hill

Poem Title: 100 Percent Acrylic Poet Name: Debbie Okun Hill Poem: I cradle you, hand-spun fetus in a womb your somersault-roll clinging loose to umbilical cord string a lump of yarn clay a woven basketball of natural wool growing, forming inside my spinning wheel I dream of mohair rabbits alpaca and Bo Peep sheep the softness of your skin baby-scented fingers toes wiggled and washed but you come out screaming a deep throaty cry like a rebel a chemical synthesis coal, air, water your multi-colored strands 100 percent acrylic your artistic brush of life a gush through water broken your painter’s palette, still wet and dripping your drive for independence mimicking your father’s ancestors their petroleum-based heritage fibers falling from a cracked spinneret END OF POEM. Credits: Copyright © Debbie Okun Hill Previously published in They Have To Take You In, Hidden Brook Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-927725-13-9. Debbie Okun Hill has been writing for over 35 years with a focus on poetry since 2003 and on blogging since 2014. She has one poetry trade book Tarnished Trophies with Black Moss Press and her award-winning work appears in four chapbooks. Over 440 of her individual poems have been published in Canada, the United States, and Israel. She is the former president of The Ontario Poetry Society, a full member of the League of Canadian Poets and The Writers Union of Canada, plus is a former co-host of Sarnia’s Spoken Word open mic event.