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.