“Call and Response” by K. Stoll

Kallahan Stoll is a graduate of the University of Toledo. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and English, with a focus in Creative Writing. She currently resides in Ohio with her dog.

Call and Response

1
Every night I kissed mom on Carmex coated lips.
Dad dipped his thumb in a bowl of holy water
and traced J.M.J on my forehead.
I yelled I love you from my balcony
until someone answered back.
I slept unafraid of the trees outside,
phantom limbs throwing acorns at the window,
tucked into my favorite fairy sheets
ignoring the squirrels scratching the ceiling,
I prayed please don’t let me die before I wake.

2
Now I ask God to give me something good.
Mom calls but we have nothing to talk about,
The head an empty space,
tiny pebbles jammed in the thinking canals.
Dad calls too, he asks if I have been praying.
I imagine his thin gray hair and closed eyes,
kneeling around the living room ottoman,
plastic rosary bead clutched in his hands,
like how I hold a bottle of Pinot Grigio.
We were the congregation, him the priest.
I take my pill to sleep and cower
under the blanket I stole from a frat house
I’ve been praying.

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