“Mothers” by Chloe DeFelippis
green eyes & her mother’s
television echoing, she’s
learned to sleep on the couch.
greens eyes & her mother’s
brown bags full, she
collects packets of salt, pepper, ketchup.
green eyes & her mother’s
handwriting on index cards, she
cries when shredding paper.
green eyes & her mother’s
dead infant daughter, she’s
learned to walk away from
needy little girls
sad & alone.
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Chloe DeFilippis Artist Statement: Chloe DeFilippis was born and raised in Bayonne, a tiny blue-collar peninsula in New Jersey, where she currently resides. She graduated from New Jersey City University in January 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in English/Creative Writing, having completed an honors thesis in memoir. Chloe uses her perspective as the youngest in a six-person, working-class family of Italian- and Polish-American heritage to inform her work. Her poetry and flash nonfiction have been published in the journal Voices in Italian Americana as well as in the e-anthology Olive Grrrls. She was the 2015 recipient of the Walter Glospie Academy of American Poets Prize and is currently the proud moderator of her 100-word writing group, which has been together for two years. When she’s not writing, Chloe is tending to her small vegetable garden.
