By: Lauren Lindroth
Migration
Butterlies
a myriad of color,
skin my muscles
and tendons
and bone,
while pupa
grub my brain
at the cancer
termiting its way
through your temple
sawdusting your spine
and liver
and femurs –
where millimetered,
angry,
invasive
tumors
dangle carrots
to their friends
to proceed forward –
mob mentality,
swelling
as a drop of milk
o’er painted
watercolor.
My limbs ache
to fly –
fly to you above
the surf’s whipped cream.
But curdled memory
possesses no trace
of purifying lightning
or chlorine for the pool.
Someone forgot to pasteurize
Memory’s milk –
expiration date
offending the nose
even as it buries
into your closeted shirts.
And there’s no recycling
future gallons
yet unfilled
with migrating wings
never to return home.
Happy For You
I visited today. He smelled of sweet milk. He squirmed strongly. Six to nine month clothing for eleven weeks. I used simple sentences and fragments that should've been compound-complex or complex at least. But my words were simple, plain, and false. I handed you a crotchet’d bunny and cap and blankie that my mom stitched with each breath for you not for me. I lost my pregnancy. She grew inside my belly (I like to think it was a she) for lucky number thirteen weeks - But life evaded, gave me the slip with only a heated blanket for the agony. Oh, and lyrics to keep me company, “Just be Held.” I tried to make it a license plate, but another’d already stolen it. It seems I’ve been robbed.
But happy for you.
Lauren Lindroth is a high school English teacher who discovered a passion for writing creative nonfiction and poetry while teaching Advanced English Language and Composition for six years. In delving into creative nonfiction with her students, Lauren found inspiration to create her own works. Attending UCLA for her Bachelors in English and a soon to be graduate of Southern New Hampshire University with a Masters in English and Creative Writing with a Nonfiction specialization, Lauren enjoys writing poetry memoir essays in particular, and is working on her first book. Lauren is a member of the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild, and always looks forward to attending writing conferences and workshops such as the upcoming 'She Speaks Conference' in July 2019. Lauren resides in San Diego, loving the beauty of the weather and the outdoor lifestyle. She adores her family nearby and her cats Kua and TyTy.
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