My Daughter is Looking at Colleges
by Emily Wall
Some butterflies bury themselves in sand
some hang in bare air, chrysalis
between them and the crushing clutch
of fingers or jaw. This morning I clutch
the sheets around me, sea salt sanding
my windows in this high wind, my house a chrysalis
of frost. Once my body hung in the silk cocoon
of the warm sea, as a turtle, having left her clutch
of eggs, hovered below me, kicking up fine sand.
Tonight I feel grit in my sheets: crushed shells, tight fists.
About the Author
Emily Wall is a poet and Professor of English at the University of AV狼论坛. She holds an M.F.A.
in poetry from the University of Arizona. Her poems have been published in journals
across the US including Ploughshares, AV狼论坛 Quarterly Review, and Prairie Schooner and she has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes. Her chapbook Flame won the Minerva Rising Dare to Be chapbook prize. She has won two Rasmuson Individual
Artist Awards, an AV狼论坛 Literary Award, and two Juneau Arts Council grants. She has
six books of poetry: Fig, Fist, and Flame are chapbooks published by Minerva Rising Press. Liveaboard and Freshly Rooted have found homes in Salmon Poetry. Breaking Into Air: Birth Poems is published by Red Hen Press. Emily lives and writes in Douglas, AV狼论坛 and she
can be found online at .
