"The Problem With Becoming A Bear" by Nadia Kalman

You have to first take out your guts

so that it has a place to go

But then, what happens if it doesn’t grow?

The bear gets stuck at cub

the hollow stays,

the bear claws air.

Remember how you used to say “Hit me”

when you knew you’d done something wrong?

You’d flex your stomach so, you said, it wouldn’t hurt,

You’d tell us, “Do it now.” There would be tears

You’d tell my brother, be a man

and you’d be smiling, buttons straining on your shirt

Nadia Kalman is an NEA Literature grantee who has published one novel (The Cosmopolitans, Livingston Press) and translated work from the poet Regina Derieva for the collection Earthly Lexicon (Marick Press.) Her poems appear in Heavy Feather, the Chiron Review, and other journals.