Two Poems by Lisa Boyce

Feathers and Silk 

 

it used to be your chest was my pillow
temporarily of course – always temporarily –
you needed more         space
said you couldn’t fall asleep
sweaty limbs tangled like sheets
while I – girl who sweats
through her shirts
when it’s 30 degrees out
– wanted
onlytobecloser
devised a way to get nearer to your heart
dreamed of cracking open your chest
so I could crawl inside
be at the center of it all
 
sometimes if I squeeze my eyes tight enough
the pillow I am holding
becomes your chest
– but softer –
it does not smell like you
– roast chicken and orchids –
I burrow deeper
 
the pillow cannot
curl around me
nor kiss me
nor tell me that I am being ridiculous
nor claim that its favorite animal is the redwood tree
– I could taste the weed on your breath that night
 
the pillow doesn’t mind the warmth of my body
there’s always a cool side underneath
the pillow is not weighed down by me
or by anything
it’s just feathers and silk

 

Salt

 
sweat / blood / tears / the ocean
it is all water and salt
 
when I cry because of the things you did to me
it tastes like drowning
 
but my tears are strategic – scientific
the higher the concentration of salt in the ocean
the easier it is to float
 
even on the nights I cry until
my head might split
until my eyes inflate like inner tubes
until my mouth is so dry
blood drips from my gums
     – more salt water in the back of my throat –
 
even then               especially then
I am lighter after

 
*
Lisa is a writer from Illinois, who went to college in New Jersey, spent summers in LA, and lived in Austin, Texas before making her way to New York City, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in 2018. Before turning her focus to writing, Lisa spent 16 years as a competitive swimmer, taking part in two U.S. Olympic Trials competitions and being named Princeton’s female swimmer of the decade. Now that she’s no longer diving into cold pools at 5:30am, she fills her time working in financial PR by day, writing her novel by night, and moonlighting as an amateur baker and a multi-time dog trivia champion in between.