Three Poems

Written By Emily White Illustrated by Elara Montana

From the

Fire Escape Ladybugs and Bees (for Annamarie Accardi)

We sit there and watch, two sets of eyes and one fire escape. Your laugh is infectious and I find myself wanting to be sick

Forever.

I know this might be the last time I get to see the dimples form around your smile, but I feel blessed

to know you, to love you, And to have you. So we sit there and watch. I close my eyes, and all I see are

strobe lights. I stop listening, and all I hear are

sirens.

I stop sniffing, and all I smell are

funnel cakes.

I close my mouth, and all I taste

is church wine from your funeral. I stop breathing until I’m in a world where

it’s just You and Me. The Ladybug running around with the little Bee.

I had a stomach ache, an ache so bad, you funneled Ginger Ale down my throat. You tied my hair into a knot, with the same hair tie I’d been using for months.

My body was not mine anymore, My stomach was filled with stones. But with each embrace, you broke those stones. Why is he helping me, I thought, while the twisting and turning took control.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t love you,” you said. Ginger ale dripped from my lips, and danced on my tongue, cultivating my reply. My stomach ache was worse now, but not like before.

Its rumbling filled the silence in the room.

But once I looked into the oceans

one would call his eyes, the noise stopped. My stomach flipped. My cheeks turned crimson. “I love you too,” I said, praying that I wasn’t just Ginger Ale Dreaming.

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