by Laurie Kolp

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

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She kissed as if to breathe you inside her
(but) from the waist down, she was never there.
In her garden, the lies were shaking out moist silks.
To endure the endless walk through self,
pride pumped in like poison.








Cento credits: L1-Ocean Vuong, Kissing in Vietnamese; L2-Claudia Emerson, Early Elegy: Headmistress; L3-Sylvia Plath, The Detective; L4-Molly Peacock, Altruism; L5-Anne Sexton, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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Laurie Kolp is an educator, avid reader, runner, and nature lover living in Southeast Texas. She is the author of Upon the Blue Couch and Hello, It's Your Mother. Her poems have appeared in Whale Road Review, SWWIM Every Day, The Inflectionist Review, and more. Laurie’s found poetry has been published online and in journals such as North Dakota Quarterly, Prelude, Dream Pop Press, and more. Laurie is currently working on a project to honor her late father.

by Laurie Kolp

Bark mulch armors me brave.
When I separate its matter, I am defenseless
in the mounds I have made around me.

I become my mother: mattressed in living
room, all puffed up and naked, months like
meddlesome weeds.

Breaths are muffled grunts
because still air is too humid, hands
the only things movable in this
present moment. I rush

to disentomb mismanaged mess
until I reach moisture. There, the ashen soil
provides comfort I can admire.

Soon, I will cover the ground back up
with mulch knowing Mother
would want it that way.

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Laurie Kolp’s poems have appeared in Stirring, Whale Road Review, Pith, and more. Her poetry books include the full-length Upon the Blue Couch and chapbook Hello, It's Your Mother. An avid runner and lover of nature, Laurie lives in Texas with her husband, three children, and two dogs.

by Laurie Kolp

She kissed as if to breathe you inside her

(but) from the waist down, she was never there.

In her garden, the lies were shaking out moist silks.

To endure the endless walk through self,

pride pumped in like poison.

Cento credits: L1-Ocean Vuong, Kissing in Vietnamese; L2-Claudia Emerson, Early Elegy: Headmistress; L3-Sylvia Plath, The Detective; L4-Molly Peacock, Altruism; L5-Anne Sexton, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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Laurie Kolp is the author of the complete poetry collection, Upon the Blue Couch, and chapbook, Hello, It's Your Mother. Her publications include Southern Poetry Anthology VIII: Texas, Stirring, Rust + Moth, Whale Road Review, Front Porch Journal, and more. Laurie lives in Southeast Texas with her husband, three children and two dogs.