elsewhere

Zoe Adrien Lapa

life is parting around me—
i’m a rock cradled by two twin braids
of river water. yesterday i made focaccia
with my mother. we have cherry tomato dreams!
baby carrot schemes! i wrote a poem about a match
and it set the whole damn notebook on fire.
this is only step one of my ten-step plan.

growing up in an iridescent soap bubble, y’know,
you kinda get a skewed view of the world outside.
you watch the news but it never really hits you
until shrapnel bursts like fireworks in your face.
elsewhere, life happens and happens.
the river’s current can’t quite carry me away,
but i can still feel its heavy-handed caress.