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.

Drowning

SWWIM Every Day
by Kindra McDonald

How long is the longest breath

you can hold? How long the grudge

 

of silence? How do you fight buoyancy

so well? Swelling your lungs with birdshot—

 

The slow rain bends the stems

of the tall weeds like piano keys.

 

In the steeple of your hands we lean in again

 

of the tall weeds like piano keys

the slow rain bends the stems

 

so well swelling your lungs with birdshot

of silence, how do you fight buoyancy?

 

You can hold, how long the grudge,

how long is the longest breath?

Kindra McDonald received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is an adjunct writing professor and doctoral student. Her work has appeared in Rise up Review, Plainsongs and others. She is the author of the chapbooks Concealed Weapons (ELJ Publications, 2015) and Elements and Briars (Redbird Chapbooks, 2016). Her full-length book, Fossils, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She lives with her husband in Coastal Virginia where she bakes and wrangles cats.

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