Gifts of Life and Death

Audrey is a poet, classical singer and voice teacher, recovering attorney and licensed psychotherapist.

My #6 for National Poetry Month

i give of sand,

its impermanent striations

my constant.

i am the shore

washed clean for you.

i give of salt.

to taste my lips is to know

of brine births in shallows

and to taste death within me.

i am algae,

my life but a blink of your eye.

i give of blood

to grubs and adders

who must nest

to find warmth.

i am its thickness

and its scab

bursting through soil.

i give of bone

its hum but a vibration.

i am the maggot who rests

in bone's hollows

laying my eggs in the dark.

© 2017 Audrey Howitt