National Poetry Month Spotlight: Jessica Bebenek
We’re back with the third feature in our National Poetry Month Poet Spotlight series. Next up is Jessica Bebenek!
Jessica is a long time member of Book*hug’s community, and we are very happy to finally be publishing her debut poetry collection No One Knows Us There, which is officially out today! Jessica’s poems paint two distinct portraits of early womanhood, that of the devoted caregiver, and that of a woman a decade older compassionately looking back on her younger self.
Without further ado, please enjoy “The Place You Leave and the Place You Return To” from No One Knows Us There, which is now available for purchase! Please follow along for more National Poetry Month Poet Spotlights all month long.
The Place You Leave and the Place You Return To
I once kept a mini-fridge in my bedroom;
that’s how holed-up my heart has been.
The eyes of the future are looking back to us
and they are praying. Know, one day, you will
be forced into everything: generosity, nakedness;
a bird who shapes her home
pressing her breast to the walls
a thousand times.
