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 Queen of Cups makes me a drink. She does it all by eyeball, as if she sees secret measurements scored into the glass. All I can see are etched tentacles of some bathypelagic creature whose body hides beyond the borders of the glass. She knows what I like. Maker’s Mark, sweet vermouth, the dark Italian cherries almost candied in thick syrup. I’ve been standing on the shore, I say, trying to discern best practice, best path, best philosophy. She pours golden liquid over a glistening sphere of ice. The ice cracks in the glass. She nods. Not everything stays singular, she says, not everything should. In goes a cherry, a spoonful of ruby syrup. She stirs the drink, sniffs it. A small shrug. Another cherry. You’re allowed more than one.
Merie Kirby earned her M.F.A. from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Grand Forks, ND and teaches at the University of North Dakota. She is the author of The Dog Runs On and The Thumbelina Poems. In 2016 and 2013 she received North Dakota Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grants. Her poems have been published in Mom Egg Review, Whale Road Review, FERAL, Strange Horizons, and other journals. See meriekirby.com.
