Michelle Grow

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of her life, every quality of her mind, is written large in her works.”
—Virginia Woolf

I added CSULB for graduate work in an MFA program with an emphasis in poetry. Here are some samples of my work from that time.

30th August 2017

Acculturation

Buda and Pest united in 1873, generations vacation in 2005, a visit to our homeland.
Grandmother and grandchild in the castle district, its grey, the ground wet.

Issuu • 12th November 2015

American Mustard Inaugural Issue (First Volume)

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Two Cents

Working at the diner waiting on a woman who kept her dentures in her brazier. A woman who worked once but retired today. She slaps my hand as she tells...

Ruby's

Burgers grilling on the flat top. Fish in the fryer.
The cooks paper translucent hats drip with sweat.
My hands collect on the cold steel of the salad station.

Regular Days with Strange Occurrences

An oil rig burns in flames that boil from its hot liquid. The rig does this off— and on for hours. From far away on a picture in Facebook it...

One of One

You are limited edition.

My Mother was a Miner When She Left Her Country

Hiding among statues and graves,
soldiers with machine guns,
meticulously searching
for honey, for miners.

Mud

Waves of heat permeate the soaked grass as the boy croaks,
catching frogs in flooded acres. He jumps through tall blades
belching ribbits and sledging through the marshy swamp.

Late Night Rain

Leaving work, I see palm tree debris like road kill, I smell fires in the fine houses burning ambient light. Two men seek shelter from the rain sip coffee and...

I Am An Ocelot

Sitting on the silken settee, an oscillating fan sooths my tempered skin among the rolling lolls of heat in the height of Summer in the city. A visit to Avant-...

Frida

There sits a symbiotic connection through the perception of separation and its effects on the body. On the heart and the spirit sits a cloudy Judgment. A small token from...

Fourteen Donkeys Airlifted from Hawaii

I’m told it’s illegal to pick pineapples and humidity clings to the knees of tourists while sand removes more skin cells than loofahs, legs like day old bread, like cracked...

Birds

More bodies of seaweed than humans are on shore this morning, the last day of this job. A new one waits for tomorrow. The seagulls squawk at reflections in the...

Avocado

This Alligator fruit in the palm of my hand, its pear shaped body,
pebbled of coppery purple, hides a single seed within. I squeeze
gently, pressing my fingers against the flesh to check for ripeness.

Apis Melifera

Consciously unaware of last names we assume ourselves to be family. The dust pillows up into the pale desert sky as we drive the dually towards a stranger’s house. Each...