Anxious Poets Society
Moment by Emily Perina
I was the Daughter of Wands
Head held high, future unknown
How presumptuous to assume we are not like the tiny plastic toys from quarter machines outside our favorite bodegas
We get what we get
But don’t we always get upset?
Rubber Halloween rats make me nostalgic
Swirling down the bathtub drain
It’s the sharp ring of metal, screeching, soothing
Uncompromising
My bounty of the forest has been revealed
Muskrat skull, stuffed with leaves
Hollow eyes
If I could just go back to that moment to take better note of the how the light shined off the water
How my Father carried the dirt covered creature home
Instructing me to save this fragile reminder
Things do end
I’ve spent countless hours picking cat whiskers out of every carpet I’ve had
Did I really think I would notice the beginning of mourning my youth?
I am just a moment
A bodies memory of another time
Another home
A dead hermit crab with a shell perfectly spiraled
I am the Daughter of Bones
Emily Perina (aka ESP) is a New York based artist. Her crafts range from mixed media sculpture, to poetry, to welding, and most recently, taxidermy. She often centers her work around attempting to accept her anxieties while pushing herself to adapt new practices to portray these feelings in her work.