Kate Furlong

Kate Furlong is a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania where she received her BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Kate continues her education at the University of Metaphysics where she is studying spiritual healing. She has been published in Red Cedar Review and Litro Magazine. Kate works as a teacher but lives as a student.

Winning Poetry

she kept a picture of her grandmother on the mantle she never cleaned

framed and with a bullet hole between the eyes- from when she shot it- with a pistol-shattering the glass into webs- she’d run her fingers against- to remember- blood- earthy thing- reminder of impermanence- & fear- as a means of survival- anxiety is evolution- telling us to return- to the source- womb we never leave- yet always return to- perpetual cycle- torrid sun sinking into the pit- of my empty stomach- I wake hungry at dawn- again it’s not enough- again I stopped dancing- again a dog howls for the moon- & I hear my grandmother’s voice- saying she didn’t know why- she shot it- but there was something that needed to die- in the image- feathers emerged from her grandmother’s hair- & her eyes saw- the bullet coming- we all have since.

According to conventional science a female is born with all of the eggs she will ever have. She develops them while inside of the womb of her mother. Thus, we were all once in the womb of our maternal grandmothers.