Jenny MacBain-Stephens

Premonition

Jenny MacBain-Stephens

Part I

Inspired by images from The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) natural phenomena, unnatural births, and birthmarks as omens.

One half of a torso lay in the middle of the highway: the mound of hair and pink slivers unidentifiable, one automatically shivers: a bad omen.

If the birthmarks weren’t already on my babies’ thighs…

no, that’s not right, only one twin has a mark

forcing the question, where is the mark of the other?

If he was not marked coming into this world will he be taken early, was he not meant to be here.

The light brown moth wings that imprint my upper thigh span one son’s leg as well,

but not the other.

Medical texts say it’s due to the ways fetuses move in the womb, to skin pigmentation

Or birthmarks foretell: if you were shot in a past life if you will drown in the future if you looked at fire too long if the mother is vengeful if the mother is lustful if an angel kissed you if a devil inhabits your body if you once were a snake

I help my son get dressed everyday I always look for a mark.

The Yoga Teacher

Jenny MacBain-Stephens

Steffany is a hippie but classy: I’ve seen her wear a belt.

Balanced in tree pose on a fallen tree.

She has a muscular, hairy husband. (She was proud that he was hairy.)

And everything was always okay. Especially that first downward dog of the morning

which always feels awful. We flowed through poses and

the sun shone or the clouds covered, the universe, expanded and

contracted down to the last Shavasanna, where

Steffany never shafted you on time— gave the full ten minutes in corpse pose.

She always recited a quote at the end of class. Usually a Buddhist saying or question such as

In life, are you the driver, the carriage, or the horse? Once, this prompted someone to give her a pamphlet on Jesus.

it’s okay, Steffany said, everyone can believe what they want. No eyes were as blue as Steffany’s

as when she was looking up.