Because I Can’t Sing

On the day Whitney Houston died, you texted
with teary-eyed poor grammar, the first thing
you did when you found out was to go to bought
her greatest hits. Ears deaf to most sounds:
the vibrations and pitches she could hit, belt—
you could hear. And I think that’s why I can
remember you naming The Bodyguard
your favorite movie.

When you were laid up

in your final days, dad said you dying would be
the greatest gift you could have ever given me,
that I’d find you with me at all times. My own body
guard. But now, I can only hear that dingy bar
conversation where I play Whitney, “And you’re ready
to die for me?” Where you then tell me: “It’s the job.”

A.k.Padovich received her M.F.A. in poetry from George Mason University in May 2015, where she was an Honors Awardee, Lannan Fellow, and co-Editor-in-Chief and Lead Poetry Editor for So to Speak: A Feminist Journal of Literature and Art. In the past she has taught an introductory Literature course on death, crisis, and zombies at the college level, life skills in a Special Education classroom, and the English language abroad in the Russian Federation. Her poetry has been featured in Beltway Poetry Quarterly’s special prose poem issue amongst others. This transplant-Seattlelite now calls the open road her home.