Leda Leaves Manhattan
Three days after it happened, I grab a greyhound
going west. All I have: a duffel stuffed with socks, t-shirts,
oil paints, a coffee-stained photo of my mother. A little cash.
I spark Marlboro menthols in the lavatory, spit smoke
into the no-flush toilet. Stench curls and thickens.
Fluorescents buzz overhead. The floor lurches beneath
my feet. Nothing is steady anymore. The door clicks shut;
I slump back to my window seat. I need to be landlocked,
waterless. I have friends in Kansas City. I’ll crash
on couches, find some doctor to take care of me,
if it comes to that. I’ll pursue a new hobby: take a shotgun
to the edge of a lake and shoot at every shadow of wings.
Emily Rose Cole is the author of a chapbook, Love & a Loaded Gun, from Minerva Rising Press. She has received awards from Jabberwock Review, Philadelphia Stories, and the Academy of American Poets. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2018, Carve, and River Styx, among others. She holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and is a PhD candidate in Poetry and Disability Studies at the University of Cincinnati.
