MUSEPAPER AWARD WINNER: “Beginnings” by Keith Mark Gaboury of San Francisco, California
TOPIC: Beginnings & Endings
STORY/ESSAY/POEM: Poem
MONTH: January 2018
Beginnings
by Keith Mark Gaboury
Can I travel back to the womb,
back to the female zygote
of my conception
when my penis popped out
like a hibiscus through hungry soil.
Yes the cellular shells of you, me,
Mary the turtle hoarder
all multiplied into four-limbed spawn.
How blessed to swim
in a sea of amniotic fluid
without a neurological bother
over raising
a resilient dalmatian
before graduating
to a family of four.
I return home
to Sam barking in the mud room
as your body builds a femur.
Through the kitchen window,
a honeysuckle sapling
vaults towards our common sky.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Keith Mark Gaboury earned a M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College. His poems have appeared in such publications as Eclectica Magazine, Five 2 One Magazine, and New Millennium Writings. After spending his days as a preschool teacher, Keith spends his nights writing poetry in San Francisco, California.