Carole Symer


Repudiate, v., \rəˈpjudiˌeɪt\

(June 24, 2022*)


mama’s
little

ego
cunning

la-la
la-la

fort-da
fort-da

walled-up
inside

your oh
so cold

ripping
raving

snuffed-out
verb phrase

put on
paper

not your
uterus

nor a
death sign

bursting
empty

from your
black cloak

I did
not rise

I did
not rise


*The date five conservative justices on the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

Carole Symer is a practicing psychologist and teaches at New York University. She has authored nearly a thousand neuropsychological evaluations to help neurodiverse learners get their civil and educational rights fulfilled and discover more of life's pleasures. Her essays, articles and poems have appeared in Across the Margin, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Dunes Review, Michigan Chronicle, Midway Journal, Mutha Magazine, Sky Island Journal, Tiny Wren Lit, Tupelo Quarterly, Wild Roof Journal, and elsewhere. She is the 2020 recipient of the Interlochen College of Creative Arts Scholarship Award. She is the author of the chapbook, Glint, (Harbor Editions, 2021) and a student in the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson.

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