My Children’s Fights, in Ekphrastic

                           —after Megan Merchant

A taunt, edged in yesterday’s 
grudge, scathing the air on its hurl 
across the room.

Pinpricks of jealousy, imperceptible
until a day explodes.

How I mistake shriveled
birthday balloons for slumped
flowers, or trampled carnival chicks.

Tongue percussion. Accusations
in falsetto. They twang each other’s
strings, bask in the snap.

Their fingers, plated in steel. 
Pinched skin. Anger afterwards
like red hot charcoal.

Four different movies quartered
in an hour. Plots, skinned down 
to conundrums. My children’s 
differences a hatchet they refuse 
to bury.

So many toys with broken 
moods. The way spite splits 
plastic into its component wails.

My mascara, streaked in why’s.
How’s cracking my lips. 
All my pleas hanging 
off the ledge of my voice
by an exclamation point.

JULIE WEISS

Julie Weiss is the author of The Places We Empty, and two chapbooks, The Jolt and Breath Ablaze: Twenty-One Love Poems in Homage to Adrienne Rich, Volumes I and II. Her second collection, Rooming with Elephants, is forthcoming in 2025. She lives in Spain. You can find her at julieweisspoet.com.