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  • By Force of Wanton Will
  • Michele F. Cooper (bio)

The entrail pulls togetherby force of wanton will, crawlsin tiny increments to the edgeof the salty sea, broken iceand foam distracting the pipersand gulls, nothing to turnher toward home.

The ice looks enticingas she burns, angers flaringlike sun spots,tips of flames on a red hot grate.

She will gain her just dessertovercoming shells and seaweedsas she strains toward redemption,turns off the sensors in her skin [End Page 82] as she navigates the cut musselsand splinters piercing like glass,

reminding her she's on a chosen path,getting stronger from the pain.Should she make it to the waterline,she will douse her fire in bliss, diein the satisfaction of a stilled serenity.

Mother, let her. [End Page 83]

Michele F. Cooper

Michele F. Cooper is the author of three books including Posting the Watch (WordTech, 2008) and founding editor of the Newport Review, Crone's Nest, and the Premier Poets chapbook series. She won Poetry Canada's Rhymed Poetry Competition and the TallGrass Poetry Competition. She recently left the outer edge of a horse farm in Portsmouth, RI, spent a year in Providence, and now writes and works as a book editor in the Cleveland area.

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