Nursling
“Nursling” comes from Jen Stewart Fueston’s 2020 collection, Madonna, Complex.
By Jen Stewart Fueston
after Psalm 131
When did I ever thirst as much?
Bend my body, thrash unwieldy
legs, wheel my arms to rock
toward a yielding warmth,
toward skin and gathering and milk?
Did I tune my ears to silence
when the singing stopped? My
newborn eyes still colorless
and dim, hungry for returning light.
No. I remember crying in the dark,
wandering empty hallways toward
my mother’s room, trying
every door, my body weaned
off starlight now for good.
Jen Stewart Fueston is the author of the newly released collection Madonna, Complex (Cascade Books 2020) as well as two chapbooks, Visitations (Finishing Line Press 2015) and Latch (River Glass Books 2019). Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and has appeared recently in publications such as Structo, Relief: A Journal of Art & Faith, and Christian Century. She has taught writing at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA, as well as internationally in Hungary, Turkey, and Lithuania. She lives in Longmont, Colorado, with her husband and two young sons.
“Nursling” was originally published in Madonna, Complex by Jen Stewart Feuston. Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers, www.wipfandstock.com.You can purchase a copy of the collection here.
