by Laura Raye May
In eastern France, there is a primate sanctuary named, in English, the Valley of the Monkeys, where one ape was found to be passing down forms of self-harm to her offspring.
When she could not keep her mate
the ex-wife wondered if her sable
coat was thinner, would he, perhaps
have stayed? One by one and weeping
she filled her fists with fur and watched
as the belly she tried to shrink
began to swell with life. The day her child
fell fatherless from her womb she swore
mal-amié was a word her daughter
never needed know. She groomed,
plucked tender infant skin to scabs,
wrecked her baby so a man
would never find her lovely.
And who am I to judge?
How often have I stroked my own
throat raw til knuckles flake
against my teeth and the space
beneath my breasts turns inwards?
In the mirror I am French.
Swollen. Furless tongue demanding
Fille, vouz serez charmant.
Daughter, you will be beautiful.
Laura Raye May is a current graduate student of poetry at Auburn University in Alabama, where she also received her bachelor’s degree in the same subject. Raye has had poetry published in Auburn’s undergraduate literary magazine, The Auburn Circle, and was named an honorable mention for her poem “The Daughters of Le Vallée des Singes” by AWP in 2015. Additionally, her work has previously been accepted into Auburn University’s Research Week exhibit as an example of Creative Scholarship.