THE BODY
The Parents
By J. C. Todd
Käthe Kollwitz, The Parents (Die Eltern) from War (Krieg), 1921. One from a portfolio of eight woodcuts, 13 13/16 x 16 3/4 inches . ©2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
They are slumping into grief,
each other’s, the nation’s,
shoulders and spines softening
into the cartilage they grew from,
infants again in a world upturned
by war. Their son is dead.
Refusal and shock are leaching
into sorrow—his trousers, her dress
melting into the soft ground
of Ingres-Bütten, its pressed pulp.
They shrink down like candles
that dwindle and deform to feed
the flames that burn, too weak
for heat or light, but enough
to fuel their going out.
J. C. Todd is the author of Beyond Repair (2021), which was selected for the Able Muse Press Book Award, and The Damages of Morning (Moonstone Press, 2018). She has collaborated with MaryAnn L. Miller on artist books published by Lucia Press, including On Foot/By Hand (2017). Her poems have appeared in Baltimore Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, the Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other journals. More information at JC-Todd.com.