“Renewal” contributor

this is what I worked out in secret
gravity is part of the falls
flame devours vapor to make the light

now my passport is blank
so is the ancient map

I folded on its even creases
thin troughs soft as riverbeds

geothermal steam rises around me
from earth, a vapor like sunrise
as delicate, as brief

by this river, down this path
I’ve been running barefoot,
like how we used to swim then
when we were small children

leaping in tumbling seas
our salt-wet skin glinting like scales

then, when we were secretless
creatures content in their make believe play
daughters of the water swimming
with mermaids in the waves

this is what I worked out in secret
we have more to be because we are here
we have never been as much as we are

Ruth Towne is an emerging poet. Her poem "J°@n M!r°'s Mannequin" appeared in Assignment Literary Magazine's summer issue "Renewal." Her debut collection, Resurrection of the Mannequins, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books. Other poems from her project have been published by the The Lily Poetry Review, Decadent Review, New Feathers Anthology, Coffin Bell Journal, Arboreal Literary Magazine, and Anodyne Magazine.She is currently the co-editor of poetry for the Stonecoast Review.