Salt and steel - Maya Weichbrodt

Salt and steel

survive in icy blue.

Red fingers

chapped and cracked by cold

parched by endless heat

drip with a promise.

One that bleeds and is forgotten

left to kneel alone

by the rectangular doorway

to its unmarked tomb.

Today the ocean kisses my fingertips

sucks on salt and sweet steel.

Sand crunches between my teeth

hard and unforgiving

like suspicious hands

rip through silk bedsheets.

In search of sweat and sacrament

they ransack sleeping monuments

greeted only by the grime of their own conquest

simply to call me a whore.

I stand naked now at the sea

raw and ravaged by winds cruel hands

today I am truly alone.

Yet I will forsake the last thing I cling to.

My whispers

my power

lay forgotten in the soil.

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Maya Weichbrodt currently lives in Portland, Oregon, and is working to complete her degree at Portland State University. She is pursuing her passion for writing with a focus on poetry, prose, and creative non-fiction. Maya’s previous work has been featured in the JAW International Playwrights Festival and various online zines. She has participated in programs with the Juniper Young Writers Institute, as well as The School of The New York Times. mayablue2001@gmail.com