SINGING BEFORE I DROWN IN A RIVER IN DENMARK

Charlotte Knight

mermaid-like and incapable
of my own distress i collect
flora from the riverbank
looting a natural ecosystem
hoping to one day be framed
in gold
i carry my losses with me
every flower a symbol
how foxgloves are death
how cattails         innocence
how pansies are love
in vain
how you        you held me
always obscured
in dark corners
like with nature
how easy to say
we are separated
tall grass
wildflowers
no waves
no waves
a tributary husband
we were subject
to bursting banks
breaking boughs
overseas
mad with grief
singing for you
till my muddy death
how easy to say gone
Charlotte Knight is a British-Ukrainian poet studying a Masters in Creative & Life Writing at Goldsmiths. She has been commended in the National Poetry Competition (2019), shortlisted for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry (2020), and longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize (2020). Her poetry has previously been featured in Magma, Screaming into a Horse’s Mouth, SPAM, and Perverse, amongst others; it is primarily concerned with fertility, grief, goats, and the moon.
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