When your mother is depressed you will be depressed.
When you are depressed your mother will be depressed.
Your daughter will be depressed because you and your mother
May be or have been depressed. Aunt Tilly
Was depressed. Aunt Candice was electrified. Itâs inherited,
Intergenerational. Old minds are housed in living bodies.
There are a few things you can do. Donât read too many numbers.
Watch the orange-red flames climb bleached stalks
Of smudge sticks while the wind carries
The scent of eucalyptus burning, wildly away.
Rachel Tramonte lives in Cleveland, OH. Her work has appeared in Bluestem Magazine, Broad River Review, The Broken Plate, The Cape Rock, Carbon Culture Review, Common Ground Review, Door is a Jar, Emrys Journal, Evening Street Review, Glassworks, Green Hills Literary Lantern, HitchLit Review, Hobart, The Indianapolis Review, Jelly Bucket, Mantis, Packingtown Review, Slab, S/Word, These Fragile Lilacs, Third Wednesday, and Whistling Shade. Her poem âDead Letter Mailâ was nominated for the 2018 Sundress Best of the Net award. She received her MA in English and Creative Writing from Binghamton University. She lives and writes in Cleveland, OH with her partner and their two daughters