Drowning

It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!

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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? 

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Kindra McDonald is the author of the collections Teaching a Wild Thing, Fossils, and In the Meat Years and the chapbooks Elements and Briars and Concealed Weapons. She was the recipient of the 2020 Haunted Waters Press Poetry Award. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and is a poet-artist working in mixed-media and found poetry and a Teaching Artist at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, VA. She served as the Poetry Society of Virginia Southeastern region Vice President from 2019-2022. You can find her in the woods or at kindramcdonald.com.