by Karen Pierce Gonzalez
Love, I’m Lost at Sea
Find a beached star,
swing it back
& forth from the shore
so its white light
might promise me
new mercy.
When my feet
meet land, catch me
as I careen, my legs
weak as water.
Bring me home,
wherever that might be,
as long as it’s too far
inland for the waves
to walk. Lay me down
in the bathtub, peel
the barnacles off
my skin. Untangle
the kelp from my brine-
crusted hair. I smell of salt
& rot, I know. Don’t
cry. Forgive me.
Feed me oranges.
Gently ease out
my loose teeth.
If you ask for perils,
I’ll recount them:
the storms huge and dark
as planets, the serpents
with year-long tails,
the nonexistent islands
& their phantom
hibiscus. These blisters
are from the sun.
He beat my body
till I was pink
& delirious.
I’m not brave,
I just happened not to die.
Please, let’s open a store:
we’ll sell ancient, yellowed maps
that show exactly where
the monsters are,
sunblock that smells
like ripe bananas.
I’m done with drowning,
done with shipwrecks,
done with raw mackerel flesh.
I want to sell popsicles,
snow globes, & postcards.
I want to sell a vast
magic net that gathers
all the stranded sailors,
because, love, there are
so many of us, all drifting
farther every day.
Annie Przypyszny is a poet from Washington, DC pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Maryland. She has poems published or forthcoming in Bear Review, Jet Fuel Review, Sugar House Review, Tampa Review, Atticus Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Main Street Rag, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Champagne Room, The MacGuffin, Cider Press Review, and others. Instagram @pryps.
Karen Pierce Gonzalez is an intuitive artist who focuses primarily on elements found in nature. To date, 55+ art works, including collages in City Companions, a hybrid collaboration with poet Marcelle Newbold that recently won Hedgehog Poetry Press’s Little Black Book competition, have appeared in numerous literary journals/magazines. Six pieces have premiered as cover art for publications such as The Chestnut Review and Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art. A 2022 National Arts Program (USA) feature artist, her 3D assemblage pieces have been shown in several Pacific West Coast galleries and museums.