Total Immersion
I sit at a table and count straws.
It’s simple: I don’t know how
to love you quietly.
Gentleness
was a lesson in birds
I skipped in eighth grade.
Water laps at a needless shore.
You are words on a screen
a day and a half behind me.
You take my sentences to bed
with you so we can
invent new languages.
You said that as though I needed reminding
I am drowning in a sea of prose.
Don’t be alarmed.
Under water
was always my favourite
place to be.
Only, your heart
opening. My eyes,
locked on yours.
Minds entangled
fingers entwined
like the thread that tethers
me to you, forever.
I always wanted you.
How possibility fails
to bring us together.
But what if I wrote you
the body’s veins
anyhow
and found a way
to place your heart
alongside mine—
the colour of the join
the blue of afternoon skies.
What then?
To love another now
is to swim
one arm in front
of the other when
I want to sink, stone-like,
full scale immersion.
To stay
and be staid.
The way a wife
places her palm
across her husband’s mouth.
The way water
gives life
by fading away.
Beeper Peddle is a writer and healer living on the East Coast. She lives with her partner and their beloved soul puppy. Beeper writes about sorrows, lies, and deep loves. When you read her work, you will dip down into her heart and end up in all manner of body parts. Should you find yourself reflected in these words, it is merely coincidence; however, it does not surprise her you share the same heart. Find her at bethpeddle.com and @beeperpeddle on Twitter and Instagram
Kylie A Hough (she/her) writes on unceded Yugambeh Country. A finalist and recipient of various writing awards, Kylie is a 2024 Best of the Net nominee, 2024 NWF/joanne burns Microlit Award finalist, 2023 Pushcart Prize nominee, 2022 Woollahra Digital Literary Award finalist, and a 2021 CA/ASA Award Mentorship mentee. Her poetry, essays and short stories are published locally and internationally, most recently in Maudlin House, Posit, and Litro.
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