Martha McCollough

WHEN TO WEAR A TIARA

above a black cotton mask
while assembling a model guillotine
              with prehistoric tigerskin coat
      amethyst chunks wired into a glittering landslide
looking for a child among the lost children
       a lattice of eyes
                           in the ashes of the house
                    while rowing over a drowned city


Martha McCollough is the author of Wolf Hat Iron Shoes (Lily Poetry Review Books 2022) and the chapbook Grandmother Mountain (Blue Lyra 2019). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Qwerty, The Bear Review, Radar Poetry, and Tampa Review, among others. She lives in Amherst, MA.