Claudia Kessel
Vishuddha
Fear lives in the throat like a swollen moon
Grief lodges there in chunks—food scraps collecting in a sink's drain
Shame croaks in clenched syllables—a crow perched darkly
caught in a thorny web of branches
When disgrace bows and tremors
its whisper leaks through wet vowels
Do not swallow your seeds of pain
their tendrils will slither up that moist passage to your lips
Humiliation tarnishes your teeth
chewing on the cud of rancor
How can my little sparrow of joy vibrate its melody
when sorrow clutches the body?
How can my mouth sing a love song
when it chokes with the dry cotton of suffering?
Bio
Claudia Kessel works as a grant writer in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her poetry has been published in Richmond Magazine as a finalist in the 2021 Shann Palmer Poetry Contest, awarded by James River Writers, in the 2024 Poetry Society of Virginia anthology, and in online and print literary journals Ekstasis, Arkana, Literary Mama, Uppagus, and Lullwater Review.