Audrey Martin

I reach out for memories
Like a fly soaring towards sticky paper
Senselessly
Uncontrollably
I gravitate towards a past not fixed.

Some thoughts become evanescent
Staying hidden in the cove of my chest
While others stay seen and felt
Seeping out from my marrow.

The mornings embracing the silent sun
Dancing with my own silhouette against
A yellowed wall or
Swinging on clothes lines
With yarned rope cutting my hands.
Blisters burning my hands
But then I felt invincible
Inevitable
Before the otherness fogged my mind.

My hands remain callused
But my impulses are less sure.
A flower chained by its roots
I yearn to grow widely
Against a flaming world.

The present is too hard to choke down.
I’m stuck in nostalgia.

Audrey Martin is currently pursuing a master’s degree in creative writing at the Newport MFA. She enjoys writing fiction and poetry, with her poems appearing in Salve Regina University’s Willow Literary Magazine. Audrey lives in New Hampshire with her family, which continues to be a space that inspires her work.