Salted

Author: Madeline Kohlberg

Undergraduate Senior at Greenville College

1st place Live Arts Contest | Undergrad Poetry

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Salted

you feel as though you’ve lost it,
lying on a bed of broken ice –
walk turned snap on a starless night

blood stuck to nails and ice on face –
blue ice crunches under swollen limits

lie with eyes on stale night sky
by way of charcoal snow
like wet ash in the cold

long spike of deadest pain –
before you can move,
wondering loss of thoughts

lying upon the whiteout
disappeared, dark, drained

butterfly sketched on your arm
colored black and rimmed with ice
fingers tracing feathered edges

that one more fall, a mental slip
a chance, a gasp, an unsure break

deep breath upon the snow

no chance to go from whence you came
no chance to move beyond
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Madeline is working on her first novel that didn’t transform into a short story. Along with writing, she is excited to graduate and to take her talents into the real world.
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