Blood Like Water, Christina Xiong

Half a dozen empties of rotgut gin in the recycling. Black vomit splattered on linoleum. I’m reminded of my eighth Christmas: Mom drank too much peach schnapps at Grandma’s party, and she vomited into a black garbage bag of my gifts. At the ICU the doctor said, “Her sodium is 104. Incompatible with life.” Her tears stopped decades ago, but she never dried out. Bruising and bleeding. Her juniper blood can’t hold its salt. New memories. The word mother. “Come back to us,” a worn prayer.

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Christina Xiong is the author of Ghost Monogamies (Ghost City Press 2019) and The Gathering Song (Finishing Line Press 2018). Her work has appeared in Resurrection Mag, Moist Poetry Journal, Versification, Cotton Xenomorph, and others. She is also a collage artist working with found media. Christina lives in the Appalachian foothills with her family.