ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Mary Sims is a 20-year-old poet and fiction writer published in The Poetry Annals, Peach Mag, Kingdoms of the Wild, Moonchild Magazine, Rising Phoenix Review, and more. She is currently working on her BA in English, and spends her days reading poetry collections, piling her book shelves, and enjoying raspberry cappuccinos with friends.
Also by Mary Sims:
Mars Rover ‘Opportunity’ Closes Transmission
In which the waiting girl stops listening to static
Lavender Lazurus
Counting Daughter Universes
In the summer I spent licking lavender from my
fingers, we buried you under the sugar cane.
I remember the how sweet it tasted the third day
its worms still had you & in one way,
it only happened here. In another,
we lit baskets of dry grass on fire & watched
ourselves blink when the wires moved. One more
& your sister called home sooner while my body played
the loose grip between a disk & its wheel.
Here, we can only name so many universes
in which a mother’s grief does not consume us.
Somewhere else, a hand weighs more than its bone
chilled through & I lie with you against my window
in the spring. There are still infinite alternatives to this.
& in one, I spend my evenings coating your wrists in honey
comb. The other, I watch winter fill my skin with bees
& leave it to cool on glass sheets. I chew the ice through
& imagine every path clawing itself back to this one.
The poem “Counting Daughter Universes” gets its name from the amount of time I’ve spent reading about alternate universes lately. It is theorized that every “Daughter Universe” is the accumulation of each of these choices. Can you imagine it? An entire universe resulting from you not catching that one traffic light. Another from if you had chosen to hug your sister back that morning. Every outcome has a different result, and I wanted to write about the lists of ‘what ifs’ we all keep locked in our bottom drawer. This poem reflects the choices we follow through, the ones we don’t, and just how strong these events on either side can end up becoming. It’s almost catastrophic to think about: the unknown depths of the choices we make, their lasting impacts, and how every decision floods over into the other. This poem conveys the devastation of a feeling so strong that it can transcend one universe and into another.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
