Selections from Island Poetry Series
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Selections from Island Poetry Series
Mattress Memories
your arms wrappedaround me, your bodypressed against me.I feltlight-years of solitudebetween us.
do what you need to doto feel better
I changedthe sheets to coverthe place in my bedwhere your silhouetterefused to die,burying you alivewith the help ofa mistress.
but revenge isn't a sweetvictory – it's a blood-thirstycivil war.& I just couldn't make lovein a grave. [End Page 1]
This Island Inflates Like Lungs
If you're lucky enoughto be loved by a poet,Stay.Make her your island.Run barefoot throughher heart,with no fear of the burn.Seek shelterin the shadeof her cheekbones –it's where shestores her secrets.Let her palmscatch the stormsof your eyelids& turnthem into sesuvium.
She will write youa thousand times over,just to make sureshe has describedthe soft tonesof your silhouettein the morning& the peacewith which yousmile at herin between sipsof coffee.
She will make you a poem.
She will capture youbefore the reaper does& bind your soulto paper reams.She will crystallize you in ink,even when you deserveto be returned to dust.
& if you staylong enough,she will teach youher magic.Your islandwill make youpoem & poetin the samegentle breeze. [End Page 2]
Laura Brzyski is a native Philadelphian, a high-school English teacher, and choreographer of school musicals. In 2014, she received her Master of Arts in English from Lehigh University, specializing in medieval literature. Her poetry has been published in Weal and Vagabond City and her creative nonfiction in The Stonecoast Review. She serves as Poetry Editor for Alternating Current and reads poetry & creative nonfiction for Gigantic Sequins.
