TWO POEMS
fairytale with blackberries
i argued with the sea
in another life i tossed copper
into the froth
and watched the sand
tremble into oynx,
sable skin rippling with scales
trade me for spring,
for anything
*
a blackberry bush grows
by the church’s back door
a young couple harvests me
and cooks me up for jam, counting
on the sugar to stay sweet in winter
there are no mistakes in this life
i come alive in the presence
of every wanderer half remembering a hymn,
swaying toward the melody
a few steps from the gate
he shaved his beard clean off, once
just to see how it felt,
and i never thought about it until now, how he
must’ve looked, hunched over the apartment’s
bathroom sink, sea foam lather
sleeping on his face
i wasn’t there. but i could’ve been
leaning into the door frame
or cross-legged on the counter
watching the razor, the dragon’s breath,
the night unspooling
its thick thread
through the crack in the window
Ethan J. Murray is a queer, autistic poet loved into existence by 12 headmates. Their work is forthcoming or published in Occulum Journal, Sidereal Magazine, Homology Lit, and elsewhere. They post free interactive fiction about trans kids learning magic at softpoet.itch.io. You can find them on Twitter, Patreon, and Ko-fi @ethanandco.