“The Worry Dolls,” Shannon K. Winston (Poetry ’18)

Shannon K. Winston, a 2018 poetry alum, was recently featured in the West Trestle Review. Read an excerpt of “The Worry Dolls” below:

The Worry Dolls

I’ve been told I was coaxed to life—jolted, shocked, pumped. Some days, I remember the muted glare of hospital light, tubes, and wires. Other days, I hear the whisper of nurses’ feet as if they’re just in the other room. Stories of my birth lurk in every corner of the house until they become tangled with my own memories. Night after night, my mother slept next to me. Me, her half-formed baby glinting in the incubator. Let God take her, the Baptist doctor advised. No, my mother snapped. Me, her half-formed baby. Undo me, unwish me, unmake me. 

Read “The Worry Dolls” in its entirety here: https://www.westtrestlereview.com/west_trestle_shannon_k_wintson_winston.html