PAIN IS A SHARK

Pain casts you out to sea where the predators wait, spinning
fins and shadows.  Sleep apnea circles,  just as you’re nodding
off, it draws close, a bump to make sure you’re still paying
attention.  Then back to cat and mouse.  Pain’s just waiting,
wearing you down.  The sun, the salt, the struggle, they’ll do
the job.  Patient, it knows one night you’ll slide off your makeshift
raft into its rows, rows of erupting teeth.

how did you come to
be a castaway, was the
storm worse than the wreck

Christa Fairbrother, MA, is the current Poet Laureate of Gulfport, Florida. Her poetry has appeared in Arc Poetry, Stoneboat, and Unbroken, among other places. Her work will be appearing in Pleiades, Prism Review, and Salamander. She’s been a resident with the Sundress Academy for the Arts, the Bethany Arts Community, and her chapbook, Chronically Walking, was a finalist for the Kari Ann Flickinger Memorial Prize. Her book Water Yoga (Singing Dragon, 2022) won medals from the Nautilus Book Awards and the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Awards.