After Watching Dante’s Peak
My mother unpacked her bags in the bland guest cabin the
Orphanage maintained for guest visits. She still had her
Thespian’s sense of drama, wrinkling her nose at that
Harsh antiseptic scent hotels cover with
Evergreen air freshener. No STI’s here. A
Required lie. We went to see a film: Pierce Brosnan,
I recall, fought a volcano. We had ice-cream. I
Shivered in the doctor’s office, after, naked on that
Silver-tone table while a private gyno spread me with
That pre-warmed speculum. My social worker wanted no
Record from a doctor that she did not own. ‘You
Overweening bitch.’ My mother never flinched at a bug,
Never gave in when my father said he couldn’t hold with
Giving me permission to come home. She’d see about that.
Bethany W Pope is an award winning author of the LBA, and a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Awards. She was a runner up for the Cinnamon Press Novel Competition. She received her PhD from Aberystwyth University’s Creative Writing program. Her first poetry collection, A Radiance was published by Cultured Llama Press and her second collection, Crown of Thorns, was published by Oneiros Books last year.