Poet of the MonthJoanna ValenteDecember 02, 2020Sarah Degner Riveros, poetry, poet of the month

Sarah Degner Riveros: December 2020 Poet of the Month

Poet of the MonthJoanna ValenteDecember 02, 2020Sarah Degner Riveros, poetry, poet of the month

Christmas in Mickey’s Diner

Not much is open in downtown St. Paul.

Even the AA intergroup meeting hall

is dark. The sun won’t even try to burn this

urban ice fog. Addiction’s a long, lonely

abandonment. The wait is warm in Mickey’s

downtown Diner, open 24/7/365; an hour

and a half for a stool at the bar. Hash browns,

oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon,

coffee served hot all holy day. The bathroom

takes a key. This is downtown. The toilet

is full of blood when I stand, stuff paper in panties,

button jeans tight, and wish myself merry.

Sarah Degner Riveros was born in Chicago and grew up in Texas; she studied at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Universitat de Barcelona, and Columbia University in New York where she earned a doctorate in Spanish literature. She teaches at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she is currently working on an MFA in poetry and creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Bearings, Brain; Child, Mothering, New Beginnings, Murphy Square Quarterly, and forthcoming in Azahares, Willawaw, and Porridge. She is a single mother of five children.

Joanna Valente