---

Amy Soppet

Memorabilia

my mother kept the wrapping paper
with my brother's blood on it
from the Christmas before last.
a corner piece of holly paper
dried stiff and streaky brown
like finger-paints on the white side
from where he'd put his arm on the table
where the gifts were.
she said she couldn't throw it away.
so she kept it in the desk drawer
with the gas money and the hospital bills
and took it out to look at it
once in a while

she fingered the pretty glossy side
red and green and gold
then flipped it over
for me to see
like she had done a magic trick

I stared at her wrist as she touched it
her whole, strong wrist
muscle-roped and reddened from thirty years
of nursing other people's children
thick and powerful
unfeminine.