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.

When the Spine Fails to Offer Support

SWWIM Every Day
by Jude Marr

a treachery of flesh and bone: hope no

wider than a walking cane: pain

no killer will cross—

                                    fear this pain

                                    back away, back

                                    away

 

 

or stand: take a stand: fake

it till you make a stand: broken but (not)

bowed: knotted but (un)frayed: laid

out flat—

 

no, not that—

 

fetal curl: furled fern leaf: ammonite

or amber shell: trunk or tusk: snaking

root—

 

from brain to base, a cord—

 

strength is curved,  not straight: I make

myself into a curve—

                                    bear this pain

                                    wait, wait

                                    wait

 

the turning gyrus cingulate

will motivate

a slow uncurl—

 

my spine and I reintegrate—

 

                                    courage is pain

                                    (don’t) resist

                                    curve your brain

                                    into a fist.

 

Jude Marr teaches, and writes poetry, as protest. They are currently a PhD candidate at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and their first chapbook Breakfast for the Birds (Finishing Line), was published in 2017. Recent credits include Nightjar Review, Weatherbeaten and Punch Drunk. Jude is also poetry editor for r.kv.r.y.

Eye of the Storm

At the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, Sacramento