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.