Emma Rhodes

Navigate What

I am eye-level with the moon, once again outside of time
and going somewhere you have never been.

There are so many islands and cliffs that mothers
have left their babies to die on for centuries, but here I am

alive on an island and cliff both, a paradox
carrying your nervous system, both of us

unwanted until we weren’t. I was born bloated
with many deaths, mourning what was held

by the hands of many men. As far as I know we are alive.
All of us grandmother’s daughter’s daughters

with different last names and a made-up history. I’m alive
on an island where I just saw a mother of thousands flower.

emma rhodes

is a queer writer in Tkaronto. Her work has been published in Contemporary Verse 2, ARC Poetry, Prism International, Plenitude, and elsewhere. She is the author of the chapbook Razor Burn (Anstruther Press), and her debut full-length collection of poetry, Excavate a Doppelgänger, is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press. You can find her at emmarhodes.net.