Necklace by Laura Joyce-Hubbard


I studied fire scars on turbine blades
by blue tape measure, by calendar.
 
By blue tape measure, by calendar
where no drag exists to push against,
 
Where no drag exists to push against,
sitting on the kitchen bench, I hold her hands.
 
Sitting on the kitchen bench, I hold her hands.
I tell her crash survivors often report,
 
I tell her crash survivors often report
sunlight streaming sideways through the spring prairie.
 
Sunlight streaming sideways through the spring prairie,
her girls wore burgundy plastic choker-bands.
 
She wears their burgundy plastic choker-bands.
I studied fire scars on turbine blades.

Laura Joyce-Hubbard is a Northwestern University MFA candidate. Her nonfiction and poetry appear or are forthcoming in Boulevard, Hippocampus Magazine, Stirling Literary Journal, Line of Advance Literary Journal, and the anthology, Our Best War Stories (Middle West Press, 2020). Recent awards include the 2020 Janecek Fellowship in Nonfiction from Ragdale Foundation and a 2020 NEA fellowship to attend the VCCA. Her essays and poetry have been awarded finalist recognition by The Iowa ReviewRuminate Magazine, and the Tucson Literary Book Festival. She’s currently working on a nonfiction manuscript about being one of the first women to pilot the C-130H in the US Air Force. Twitter: @laurajoyhub