GIRL WITH THE BROKEN BACK

See how she scuttles across the floor
The cold tile numbs, then burns
Her palms, knees, shins
All portions of flesh pressed on
The harder thing—the hardest thing

Not cursed yet—
—Soon

Then there’s this back
The thing that holds her together
The thing she’s built around
Grew up around
Now crushed under the weight of
Their bad will

Question is: will she get to her feet again?
In agony? In overcoming song?
Maybe it doesn’t matter
As long as she looks up

 

Photo Credit: Jonathan Kos-Read Flickr via Compfight cc

Written by 

Anne Leigh Parrish is an award-winning author of fourteen books. Her work has won many honorable awards such as: 2021 Story Circle Sarton Award Finalist 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze Medal Winner 2020 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Short List 2020 Eric Hoffer Award, Honorable Mention, General Fiction Category 2017 Maxy Awards, Best Fiction Winner 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal Winner Anne Leigh Parrish’s new novel, The Hedgerow, appears in July 2024 from Unsolicited Press. Diary of a False Assassin, her next poetry collection, will arrive in December 2024, also from Unsolicited Press. Recent titles are A Summer Morning, a novel; An Open Door, a novel, and If The Sky Won’t Have Me, a poetry collection. She is the author of ten other books. She has recently ventured into the art of photography and lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State. Find her online at her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. Explore her photography at www.laviniastudios.com.

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