• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

VoiceCatcher

support • inspire • empower

header-right

Main navigation

  • Our Team
  • About
    • Our Board
    • Our Story
  • Donate
  • Submissions
  • March 3, 2021
  • Fall 2019
  • Contents
  • Prose
    • Plants in a Milk Crate
    • Love and Flooding in Kings Canyon
    • How to Survive a Pregnancy Loss
  • Poetry
    • child, let’s listen to the thunder
    • She Loses Me in Distances
    • umami
    • Aunty Ruby’s Eyes
    • Apparently the Insurance Company Needs a Diagnostic Code
    • Weeds in the Rain
    • An Allegory of Desire
    • A Lover’s Eyes
    • Puerto Escondido, 1978
    • the play of licorice on
    • To Be a Woman Alone
    • The Girl Who Raised Fantail Pigeons
    • Advisory
    • Open Carry
    • but if you go too soon
    • Wail
    • Night Journey
  • Art
    • Afterglow
    • Heat Wave
    • Dusty Rose
    • Wifebeater Washer Unplugged
    • Banana Split
    • Suburban Dog
    • House
    • Big Sun
    • Favorite Things
  • Young Voices
    • Carmen
    • Racing Heart
    • god’s country

Apparently the Insurance Company Needs a Diagnostic Code

Posted on 12.13.19 by Alison Cantrell

Poetry by Stephanie Striffler

But I was not unheld when born,
an orphan from hunkered rows
of dingy cribs, wanting
for the rest of time
the lullaby language of skin
whispering to skin.

Nor was I barked and bellowed at
hour after hour
but never on the hour,
until mouths huge as earth movers
threatened to devour me
in my dreams.

And I wasn’t told a pretty story
by my older brother,
teacher, priest,
to make me lose the order
of the alphabet, and startle
at any step on the stair.

Yet all the kites and the bright bright sky
sickened from blue to bruise
and my head filled
with this wordless wind.


Stephanie Striffler is a recently retired public servant, having worked for decades as a lawyer for the people of Oregon at the Oregon Department of Justice. Her work has appeared in publications including CALYX, Timberline Review, Verseweavers, and Persimmon Tree. Stephanie spent her early years in New Mexico and Michigan before choosing Oregon as home. She enjoys birding excursions with her husband and finding new species in their Portland yard.

Reader Interactions

sidebar

Blog Sidebar

Don't miss out!

Current
IssueRead Now
Previous
IssuesRead Now

Announcements

Jan 27

VoiceCatcher Seeks Volunteers for 2021 Team

Mar 12

Notes from the President

Sep 19

Conversations with Writers & 9 Bridges Present Suzanne Sigafoos

Portland, Oregon

Site by Edee Lemonier

VoiceCatcher, All Rights Reserved