I wish for anger, clasp my crystal hands and pray
flowers poof in thin air so I could rip petal
by petal, drop handfuls in the deep end, cry
when they don’t sink, shove my bent hands
into chilled water and push down as hard as I can
until my fingers refuse to creak, the petals sink
and bounce back, lurching, curved like boats
lost at lake bottoms, wrinkled and laughing.
I wish I could light a match, cast a spell
to defy gravity, buoyancy, anything to warm
the lake, slush floating, a mocking reminder
that denial gets you nowhere, honey, it’s time.
Alexis Crafts is a fourth-year student at Westfield State University studying English. Her words are published in or forthcoming in Cantos, Blue Earth Review, Unstamatic Magazine and elsewhere. She is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of her campus literary journal, Persona, and is a poetry reader for Perugia Press.
