Imperfect Ghazal for the Last Czar’s Lost Daughter by Anne Archer

June 5, 2023
Poem title: Imperfect Ghazal for the Children of the Last Czar’s Lost Daughter Poet name: Anne Archer Poem: I said how quickly we become our stories, but I meant our mothers. My mother was a fish out of water, and my birth mother a phantom limb remapped to the heart by the body’s faulty sensory circuitry. How can a heart know what it wants? The leaf of the bloodroot wraps itself around the blossom like a gowpen. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Anne Archer Forthcoming in Anti-Heroin Chic. Anne Archer (aka Archer Lundy) is a musician and poet who lives on unceded Algonquin Territory near Sharbot Lake, Ontario. She is the author of two chapbooks: ICH HEISSE CLARA (Alien Buddha Press, 2021) and FROM THE FRONTENACS (Woodpecker Lane Press, 2022). Her recent poems appear in Yolk, The Wise Owl, The Raven’s Perch, The Eunoia Review, Sledgehammer Lit, In The Mood Magazine, and Juked, and are forthcoming from Pinhole, Devour, and Anti-Heroin Chic.