SWWIM sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.
The one farthest away from the tiny village. This is essential,
your outsider status is necessary to the adventure.
Step 2) You must have or find a secret garden,
which leads to a secret path,
which leads to a secret magical lake.
Step 3) There is a fox that looks at you every morning at sunrise
on the tiny porch of your tiny house.
Step 4) You notice the fox has two heads.
He beckons you closer. You must follow him,
you must follow him.
Step 5) He takes you to your garden and then to your secret lake,
but only you and the birds
know about the lake.
Step 6) He asks if he can ask you a question.
Don’t correct his grammar, he’s new at this.
Just say yes, yes.
Step 7) The red fox head will ask you if you’re happy here.
You’re not, but sometimes you feel that you are.
The orange fox head offers you escape through the lake,
but to enter the new world you will have to destroy this one.
Step 8) Think carefully, do not ask the foxes how the world will end.
That is another question and if you use it you will forget this and forget me.
Step 9) One offers absolution and one offers rapture.
Step 10) This town was never kind to you and no one is your friend.
Step 11) Your family loves you. Your mother loves this town.
Step 12) I’m waiting here, just beyond the lake.
Step 13) Choose wisely, choose wisely.
Annica Edstrom is a young writer currently attending an arts-based high school. She has been writing since a young age and is very interested to further her career and broaden her horizons within writing.
