Beth Gylys

Remembering the Drowned Darlings

When we try to read, their bloated
bodies emerge like bad songs.
Their faces look alarmingly
like our own, but old, older,
what we didn’t bear to think of
when we were twelve teetering
on rocks across streams, or poking
blades of grass at our pet turtles.

We are so busy the lettuce already
moldering in the vegetable drawer,
thin skim of dust on the dresser,
a dirty bowl—always a reason to
turn away, until something: a lip
like a gorged worm or the draped
remains of decaying leaves
hooked over an elbow like a scarf.

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Beth Gylys is an award-winning poet and professor of creative writing at Georgia State University. Her 4th collection of poetry, Body Braille, was recently released by Iris Press. Her other books include Sky Blue Enough to Drink, Spot in the Dark, and Bodies that Hum; she has also published two chapbooks, Matchbook and Balloon Heart. Her work has appeared in Rattle, Barrow Street, Paris Review, Verse Daily and many other journals and anthologies.