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Mouth in My Kitchen

September 20, 2016

"Mouth in My Kitchen" is a poem from the award-winning book The Verging Cities, from the Center for Literary Publishing's Mountain West Poetry Series.

"Mouth in My Kitchen" is a poem from the award-winning book The Verging Cities, from the Center for Literary Publishing's Mountain West Poetry Series.


Mouth was split roja—my wound que no
curaba. Era mi boca, pero mi boca ya no hablaba.

Acaricié sus labios, esta boca opened itself,
two branches cut into a sky. Mouth, it’s true,

I speak another language. Lips, the bumps
lodged along its tongue, I said:

Tell me I am lying. I stared at its cracked—
it was silent. I asked: Mouth, are you dying?

I asked: Mouth, why have you come? I asked
to fetch a dish. I asked: Mouth, are you alien?

Every time I creaked through the kitchen,
I told mouth it was stupid. Mouth:

pages from books it couldn’t read.
I starved mouth, only to feed mouth

paper towels and mop water
over the sink. I told mouth: Learn English.

Mouth, like a child, pursed its lips and spat.
I asked: Mouth, where is your body?

I asked: Mouth, where could your delicate hands be?
Mouth floated above me, an uneven hole.

It would never leave me, this mouth. My id
mouth, this mouth—my mother’s. 


Natalie Scenters-Zapico is from the sister cities of El Paso, Texas, United States, and Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Her poems have appeared in journals including The Believer, American Poets, Prairie Schooner, West Branch, and Palabra. She currently lives in Salt Lake City with her husband, José Angel Maldonado.

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