This Is Not a Rescue
I want to tell you it will not be as you expect. For years you have hammered in stakes, handed men the rope and said consume me with fire. Most have run – one does not burn a witch lightly. This one is water. He’ll unbind you, take your hands in his and say remember how you love the ocean? Come with me. You’ll go to the beach on a cloudy day, watch foam rise from the sea’s churn until sun appears. In turn you’ll say let’s go in and even though he hesitates, this man will kick off his shoes and wade to his shins. Jellyfish, shot with pink like satin dresses, will dance between you, flash iridescent. His body is all whorls and planes like smoothly sanded planks used to make a boat, his ears are pale shells you hear the waves in, he smells of sandalwood and salt, his eyes are ocean. He’ll spot the pebbles that in secret you have sewn into your skirts and give you his penknife to unpick them. You can’t swim with those. He’ll teach you to skim. The pebbles break the surface like question marks. You’ll throw each last one in.
We Broke Up
Because my cat
screamed her passion on our lawn
Because bears
don’t wet their ears
Because great white sharks
swim solitary lives
Because blue whales’ tongues
lie heavy
Because barnacles
have no true heart
Because elephants
mourn their dead
Because dogs
love unconditionally
Because tortoises
feel their shells being touched
Because rabbits
breed like rabbits
Because fox sex
hurts
Because ducks
are rapists
Because cows
hold grudges
Because roe deer
lower heads in prayer
Because wild boar
are matriarchal
Because domestic rats
live and die in pairs
Because giant pandas
don’t conceive on camera
Because emperor penguins
clutch eggs between their feet
Because honey bees
die when they love
Because crows
mate for life
Because my heart
made the sound an animal makes
Because of crows, the shadows
of crows
Emily Blewitt has published poetry in Poetry Wales, Ambit, Furies, Cheval, and Hinterland, and has work forthcoming in Prole and The Rialto. She won the 2010 Cadaverine/Unity Day Competition, and was Highly Commended in the 2014 Terry Hetherington Award. Emily also participated in the 2015 Enemies/Gelynion project. Her first collection of poetry will be published by Seren in 2017.
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