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i don't rise

by

Isabelle King

I drown 3 times a day (conservatively)

I drown when red poppy lips to my ear
coo that I will simply always be doomed
to repeat the coils of history
bred into my snake filled bones.

I drown when there is no exclamation point
in the email and of course I am unlovable
forever is the time waiting for forever to come.

I drown when the girl I loved twists my mind
between her pudgy little fingers
and squishes beetles out of my nose.

The moon makes the tide rise twice a day
but not for me
what a treat to contemplate being left behind
by the creator of the waves themselves.

Isabelle King (she/her/hers) is an undergraduate at The University of Maine at Farmington double majoring in Secondary Education and English with a concentration in poetry. She is currently a co-editor of The Sandy River Review. When she is not writing she can be found reading with an iced coffee in a local coffee shop.

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