IT WAS BRIGHT

As if hungry, the cliffs

spun into graves

and somewhere, blackberries

licked the earth

of its secrets, the deeper kind,

not ours, I said, your name

lush green, was shaking

air as if fed, but still

I showed up, drenched in

my finest, shambles

rising as they brought you as if

every room you had ever

been in stood still

in silence, missing you,

I thought about the cosmos

clustered out back where they

grew each year, how I

wanted to cover you in them

with bloody knees, rattled

and caught in bramble only you

could weaken on damp steps

to the sound of an ocean

closing, as if hungry, the cliffs,

and somewhere, blackberries.

Carolina Casabal was born and raised in NYC and received her MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. Her work has also appeared in Cordella Magazine.

This poem, "It Was Bright," received special recognition in the 2018 Academy of American Poets competition.