3rd Place Poetry Contest Winner! on margate sands, i can connect with nothing - Lagoon Myers

I crave innocence at night.

That’s why only strawberries satiate my sweet indulgence.

Juicy, sweet, and fresh-birthed from

Earthen mother.

If I concentrate I can

-taste the sunraywarmed berries plucked by pudgy youthden hands

-remember the first grocery voyage alone, eight year old me stalking shelves at the country corner store to stock up on strawberries and shortcakes

-feel the stickiness of the magenta magma while stockpots of berries boil down to jam

Strawberries remain a rarity on my tongue, the taste never quite replicated by moon-worn refrains.

I imagine each seed is a tiny eye, and each eye observes the cracks in my terracotta armor, seeking out the glowing child within.

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Lagoon Myers (ze/zir) is a nonbinary writer and zinester. Zir poetry explores reparenting zir inner child, platonic love, and queer identity. Ze enjoys cemetery walks, queer community art markets, and watching Twin Peaks. Ze is pursuing a Master's at the Manchester Writing School.