Barium
I can’t sink the fortunes pulled from my
bones
into the same sea
that sustains me. Surviving
season after season
of earthquakes
is terrible enough. I am
addicted to the lines
on your face. Strangers
in other places left
the doors shut
on purpose. I never
thought of absence
as something close
to power. It irradiates
me; eats me away in the dark.
I burn, I bend, I twist
myself into something
unrecognisable.
Laura Voivodeship writes erasure poetry and creative nonfiction while masquerading as a teacher in the Middle East. Her most recent work has been published in unstamatic, daCunha, and Rue Scribe, and is forthcoming from Kestrel Journal, Panoply, and Coffin Bell. She can be found posting amateur images and line edits on Instagram @lauravoivodeship.
