West Trade Review Online Exclusive: "Exhalation" by Karen Elizabeth Sharpe

Karen Elizabeth Sharpe

Karen Elizabeth Sharpe is a poetry editor at The Worcester Review. Her poems have appeared in Catalyst, the Mizmor Anthology, Baseball Bard, Verse Virtual, Columbia Journal of Arts & Literature, Canary, The Journal of the Environmental Crisis, Silkworm, and The Comstock Review, among others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Karen has been a member of Marge Piercy's juried poets group and a member of the PoemWorks community in the greater Boston area.

Exhalation

Chainsmoking in the backseat

I touch the fire end

to a new cigarette, inhale.

Tracy across my lap, eyes closed.

I tuck the cigarette in her fingers

light another for myself.

Car windows cracked, cold air sluicing.

Up front, her boyfriend,

Jeff, grips the wheel.

Pewter countryside sews itself

together. Winter shivering.

This morning we skipped school

drove to New Hampshire

with $300 cash, the clinic

two hours away.

Below closed lids

Tracy’s eyes scan

cigarette pluming.

At 15, neither of us could drive

or get an abortion in our state

without a parent’s permission.

We never thought about permission.

Rivers of trees stream by.

We were twigs pale and growing

inside our dark bark.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Home About Subscribe Guidelines Submit Exclusives West End

Stay Connected to Our Literary Community. Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Home About Subscribe Guidelines Submit Exclusives West End

Join Our Team

Image by Masha Raymers from Pexels