ectopic syntax

my mind becomes

pregnant

faster than I 

can deliver its thoughts.

ripping                       

tearing,                

then naked 

and perceived

staining the page,

with my

latent doubt,

begging to slink back

to the safe 

familiar 

bosom

in my temple.

 

“she has your eyes,”

they’ll say.

and she’ll never know

her miscarried twin,

who lived and died

in draft one.


ABOUT EMILY

Emily Aikens is a junior majoring in English at Yale University. Her work has been published in The Nation, The Washington Post, The Yale Daily News, and The Yale Herald. Upon graduating, Emily hopes to pursue a PhD in Literature with a focus on 19th-century American poets.

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