Haley King

Where I Lost Sonnet

Sometimes you are there to write it down.
—Jake Adam York

I can taste you in the rain and feel you in my fear
of drowning. In the barn out back, where we were
holding on through the storm, through the sear
of our reddened, rotten skin under wet thunder.

Pushing a wish to the stars sat still
on your head, and the heat of the flame
holding on in humid air. I never went for the kill
but I should have, I wanted the same

from you. Your fingerprints are engraved
in my thick, white skull. I wanted it to feel
like the sun was coming into my brain,
and there was joy. Maybe you should kneel

to the dry heat of August, where I am
writing this what-could-have-been love
letter. Lying like a helpless lamb
in a field of decaying petals. Sending hope above

what used to mean, what used to be heavy
is now lifeless, where smokes still sit in the old Chevy. 

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Haley King is a Salisbury University student majoring in Environmental Biology and Creative Writing. Her poetry is featured or forthcoming in The Inflectionist, Hawai'i Pacific Review and Poetry South. Inspired by nature, she blends her scientific curiosity with artistic expression; crafting pieces that reflect her connection to the natural world and human experience.