My hair freezes to the ground before they find me
Momma chokes on the steam, pours warm water
into the frozen mud around me
my brother stomachs the fullness of silence
waiting for the operator
what is your emergency?
I am, I am, I am
a December chalk outline
dirty water swirling underneath the pull
of winter’s moon
an empty space for good boys
who take my body
turn skin to frozen lake
like witchcraft, like backseat
fumbling me out
onto the hard dirt, into dawn
in one night I become
an ice castle body
my brother finds lying on the lawn
–Published 10th January 2019
About Jeanna Paden
Jeanna Paden is a writer and educator from Tennessee. Her poems have been published in Foothill: A Journal of Poetry, The Bookends Review, and Ink & Nebula. Her work has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets anthologies. You can connect with her on Twitter at @JeannaPaden.