Nicole Scott is a B.A. from Marshall University in Creative Writing and in Classics. Her poetry has been published in The MockingHeart Review and Four Ties Lit Review. She's previously written editorials for Punchland.com and the non-profit D20 Girls Project. She currently works in social media and lives in northern West Virginia.



October 26, 2016

Nicole Scott

X

I. the golden gate bridge is branded with x's on posts where people committed suicide each x each time each blood each body part I could touch the water but I won't because I'm scared night shift doesn't bother me it's the night's shift think of night scared to die scared to x scared to become the shag rug you overlook how that feels vicious on toeprints I was told to think about the vicious things dark nights in a humid room lit by flushed light I am hardly flushed I can't I need to be raining there there here is what it feels like to have something empty. II. I was told to think about beautiful things when saltwater clogs the corner of the eye it's more dry than wet I dream of Niagara Falls and get jealous it's easy for her to know how to exert the right amount of pressure the perfect amount of lushness to make eyes x her waves hit the rocks the sharp ones so much so the crowd has to sit straight down III. the crisp gust of summer reminds me how good it feels to be healthy and yours never healthy and mine in winter I was neither I was told to cup the snow in my hands and build imaginary I built a snowcastle I built a kingdom it was about happiness pleasure enjoyment x à la mode. I was told to touch x relax relax relax damn it like crushed velvet on cracked feet

"X" was written from the perspective of panic, "x" representing the unspoken thing. This speaker battles with a fear of intimacy — physical, mental, emotional. As the poem progresses, a state of insecurity transmutes into a state of passionate acceptance and triumph

Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published weekly by Glass Poetry Press.
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