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POETRY

Patrizate (intransitive verb)

Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer

    -ed/-ing/-s

    Definition of patrizate

    obsolete

    : to imitate one’s father or forebears (Merriam-Webster)

        : I grew up in my father’s bile duct

        : my inheritance strong, two-fingered

        : mixed with milk, ice; I was whiskey-licked

        : clean by the hard animal of my name

        : the animal of my mother and her mother,

        : her grandmother throwing their clotted hands

        : up to the crucifixion, the clean curve of my middle name

        : I grew up against naming, have too many

        : to count or cut the deck with so

        : I am what my father has called me

        : the litany of girlhood stringing pearls

        : the glottal stop shuttering his throat

        : against the ugly English,

        : like a good daughter, I reach

        : for the gin like it is his praise

        : I wrap my tongue around it

        : like a good daughter, I drink

        : to ignore him dying

        : down the hall.

Author Photo of Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer
Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer is a poet from Maryland. Their work has previously been published or is forthcoming in Memorious, The Roanoke Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and L’Éphémère Review. They were a poetry semifinalist for the 2017 St. Lawrence Book Award (Black Lawrence Press) and the 2019 and 2020 recipient of the Bryn Mawr Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize.

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