i'm leaking white (not that part
not my mature
fluffy
head
already demented by a breeze)
blood like spirits
brought to surface by a single spinal
snap
my springing sap
made bitter by your break
not a nut to crack not a melon to suck
it’s all your fault (this pearly drop)
this weeping fissure of
me
this itching to de-web
call back the baby
spiders
from the wind (aren’t they
only my unbound
braid?)
where did it begin (my milk)?
in my wound – or the thump upstream,
that beating so crucial
it couldn’t possibly hurt? (well
surely not
too much)
~~~
Anna Styrczula is a Tampa, Florida-based graphic designer by trade and poet by practice. Styrczula’s work has appeared in Valparaiso University’s The Lighter, is forthcoming in Hungercandle Magazine and Dualis Literary Magazine, and was awarded first place in the 2022 Florida State Poets Association Live Poets Society category. You can find Styrczula on Instagram @annastyr.poetry.
