Chella Courington

Shipwrecked

I tell my lover I want to die soon
She pulls me to her
Our breastbones side by side
            She becomes a field of lavender
            crushed blooms
            a diamond in the crocus
            I long to unwrap

                                       *

I’m afraid     I can’t love     afraid
if I open myself           you'll  hear the
Siren I am

                                       *

My lover says she knew we were at risk
I called myself too worn
She looked at me like a mother at her newborn
            Whispering
            between
            no past     no singing

                                       *

I'm hurting     my body a violated vow
words riddled     shards of what
I desire

                                       *

My lover hears     my song     no less sad
than sweet     crawls into the dark
closet with me

                                       *





Chella Courington is a writer and teacher. With a Ph.D. in American and British Literature and an MFA in Poetry, she is the author of six poetry and three flash fiction chapbooks. Her poetry appears in numerous anthologies and journals including Spillway, Gargoyle, Pirene's Fountain, and The Los Angeles Review. Originally from the Appalachian South, Courington lives in California with another writer and two cats.