Shea Winters

published as poetry in Ink Lit Magazine issue 26, Spring 2024.

I whole myself

then 	split,
                         then 
sever

I chew
myself
	     then
spit,
	and

it’s better
	    to wad myself
	   	   	   like gum, bubbled,
and to twine myself
	like rope, I knot
myself, and confine	myself
and I am not
myself 		until I am
	by myself
behind
		and below

the self becomes imprudence;
and I mine my flesh for
gold, try to find the stash
I stole and hid inside
the bars of my ribs, 
the heart I carved
out from stone, the
boy
I loved, the girl I
	   shoved aside
	   to make room

to not 
be alone.

I lose myself

then	
chain	 myself 
then anchor down
and		   sink.