How heavy
it was my mother’s dead body
in my arms
wet wool limbs dangling like
ball chain
with bent back I heaved her onto
the oak plank
rolling her poundage flesh sinew fat.
In my hand today
dense hunk of lard– animal fat
to melt in the griddle
I peel the potatoes and quarter their meats
french fries for my children–
they never met their grandmother.
Slung
on four ropes we lowered her weight
mucus occipital
marrow and skull On her inert chest
we mounded
wet soil pressed the last bit of leftover breath.
Salt on our brows
salt on our tongues
is this all that’s left of her smile
of her song
rot compressed dirt sediment rock
all that remains
of my mother.
This morning a presence hovers
in the kitchen
a soft light a faint breeze a whisper
a trace
when I press the lard on the sizzling skillet
I know there is more to believe in
than flesh.
What Inspires You
My children, Sharon Olds, Gerald Stern, Meghan Sterling, Marie Howe, my chickens, color, sounds, the ocean, and the woods—and many more.
Bio
Valy Steverlynck is an Argentine-American artist, emerging poet, mother, and oyster farmer based in Maine. Valy is a Pushcart nominee. Her poems are forthcoming in Poets Reading the News, Literary Mama, Panoplyzine, Gyroscope Review, West Trestle Review, Poetry Superhighway, Mockingbird, Action Spectacle, Madswirl, Eunoia, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Main Street Rag, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Cider Press Review. Her visual work has been shown at multiple galleries and art museums, including the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, DeCordova Museum, Fuller Museum of Art, and Centro Recoleta, Argentina.
Find the Spring 2026 Issue HERE
Previous NPM 2026 poets
| April 1 | Amy Forstadt |
| April 2 | Annette Sisson |
| April 3 | Beth Kanell |
| April 4 | Bonnie Proudfoot |
| April 5 | Charles Stringer |
| April 6 | D. Dina Friedman |
| April 7 | David Colodney |
| April 8 | Deanna Ludwin |
| April 9 | Eileen Pettycrew |
| April 10 | Felice Alexandra |
| April 11 | Grace Massey |
| April 12 | Hallie Fogarty |
| April 13 | Isabel Cristina Legarda |
| April 14 | Jon Yungkans |
| April 15 | Kim Welliver |
| April 16 | Laura Foley |
| April 17 | Laurie Kuntz |
| April 18 | Marissa Glover |
| April 19 | Michelle McMillan-Holifield |
| April 20 | Miriam Sagan |
| April 21 | Roy Mason |
| April 22 | Sarah Banks |
| April 23 | Sean Whalen |
| April 24 | Shutta Crum |
| April 25 | Simona Carini |
| April 26 | Sunny Hemphill |
| April 27 | Susannah Sheffer |
| April 28 | Tricia Knoll |
| April 29 | Valy Steverlynck |