And yes, we all learn to be boats by
navigating our mother’s sleeping
chests. Calm sea of linen on lung.
Two tiny oars growing less useless
every stroke. And yes, our fathers
stand taller than a hundred masts yet
tremble when handed the frailest of
bodies. Their heavy silence is a net
dragging empty behind us. And yes,
we’ll end up casting it all back to the
sea someday. Someday it will be our
turn to grieve, to distance. But how
close skin feels, briefly, now, as
we’re learning its edges.
2017
Shorty
Contemporary
2022
Childhood & Coming of Age
Alliteration
the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words appearing in succession
Assonance
The repetition of similar vowel sounds that takes place in two or more words in proximity to each other within a line; usually refers to the repetition of internal vowel sounds in words that do not end the same.
Extended Metaphor
a metaphor that extends through several lines or even an entire poem
Media Res
a literary work that begins in the middle of the action (from the Latin “into the middle of things)
Metaphor
a comparison between two unrelated things through a shared characteristic