Verdad Magazine Volume 30
Spring 2021, Volume 30
Poetry by Thea Swanson
Absent
I know why the woman drowned
her babies. She checked her brain
at the door of a church: Please take
this. I’m ready
to be the best I can be.
She filled her head-hole with man-
made creeds. Ragdoll stupid, she
flopped down a wringing spiral
boom
boom
boom
At the dark bottom, if one had nothing better
to do, one could have sliced into
the stitching of the chest—who knew? It beat
still—
I had a plan. No pain or blood, just
more falling. There’d be sleeping
pills, there’d be wine. Not the trunk (too
much!) but the backseat. A blanket to lull
me gone. But the youngest. He smiled for me
still—
I would wait. When the shoulder turned. When the soft cheek
hardened
BIO: Thea Swanson lives in the state of Washington and holds an MFA in Writing from Pacific University in Oregon. She is the Founding Editor of Club Plum Literary Journal, and her flash-fiction collection, Mars, was published by Ravenna Press in 2017. Her flash-fiction collection, There and Here, was longlisted in the Tarpaulin Sky Press 2020 Book Awards. Thea's work can be found in many journals. Find her writing at theaswanson.com.