Synkroniciti is happy to welcome back poet, writer and artist Rachael Ikins from the Finger Lakes region of New York. Her poem, “Transformation,” expresses the heartache of caring for an aging mother, time becoming both excruciating and dear. “When she is broken glass, when all her sharp edges bleed you ragged, you stay.” Gradually, mother and daughter exchange places in preparation for the long goodbye. Rachael’s honesty and vulnerability are deeply moving–life is dear not because it is perfect, but because of all the wrinkles and fractures that we experience together. This is love.
Read “Transformation” in our September 1st issue, “Broken,” available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Rachael Ikins followed her pen into the forest as a child. As happened to Gretel in the Grimm Brothers’ tale, a wicked witch forced her to reroute through valleys so dark she doubted the existence of the sun at times. A fabulous wizard held her heart in his hand. They fell in love. He urged her to release poetry from her soul.
She lost everything before she understood her truth: write like a motherfucker, write or die. For poetry was the constant through all storms, the beloved she refused to relinquish.
She won some prizes, published in journals and then books. When last seen Ikins was feeding pickled jalapeños to a large dragon perched on the roof of her house—a dragon who bestowed her name upon Ikins’s cat. Sister souls of fire and passion.