limited edition of 100
text / art by Kristy Bowen
(2019)
9.
The world as we knew it was
and then was not. Men fiddled
the machines into a frenzy
and still the city blackened
and blitzed like a roman candle.
I could handle the end of it all,
could float and lull while the streets
filled with water, if not for the daughter
I kept hidden in my pantry. The fear
that stopped up my throat
like feathers. Whatever the weather,
we watched and waited, braided
each other's hair until the lake
took the land back into its body.
Til the sea swallowed everything
that wasn't tethered to our wrists
like an enormous blue balloon.