Holly Day
February 21st, 2016 by admin
Mermaids we were going to take the boat out, sail to the edge of the world, tease the monsters waiting there with our bare, dangling feet, toes tickling the ocean skin like tiny pink fish but you had to go and ruin it chase shore-hugging mermaids instead had to search clam-shell bikinis for pearls find out where baby mermaids come from we were going to become pirates treasure hunters, world explorers wrestle giant squid at the world’s edge find the fountain of youth but you had to go and spoil everything in your search for suburban normalcy chase dreams of apron-clad mermaids who’d give up their kingdoms for you. Brand New I threw away everything that came before he was in my life so I could pretend that I was brand new just like the baby I held in my arms, just like the perfect baby that somehow came out of me The New Place, The New Thing it lies beneath a trapdoor in the floor. the best way to find it is to open the door. She opened the door and entered the room and was introduced to the thing that was waiting inside. I watched as you took her under your wings and erased her. she woke up that morning felt destiny stirring in her chest, flutter in the pit of her stomach in a spot that should have been empty. The butterflies would not be still no matter how loud she yelled no matter how hard she beat against the growing knot with her tiny, ineffectual hands. She who had always required screaming at to do the simplest things, she picked up the phone and called me and told me I had to come over and find away to make it all go away. You, who sit at her bedside you brush the hair back from her forehead and tell her things will be much better now. I hope you’re not lying. Holly Day Short bio: Holly Day has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minnesota , since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Oyez Review, SLAB, and Gargoyle, while her newest poetry book, Ugly Girl, just came out from Shoe Music Press.Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal