Anchor

By Lauren Vogel

Anchor

You threw it off our boat

So casually

And drowned me with it

Lured by sirens ten times

Prettier than I’ll ever be.

I washed ashore onto the same

Beach I grew up on,

Stretchmarks of seaweed

Traced the changing tides.

The sting of embarrassment

Is a nasty sunburn

Peeling away excuses I made

For every time you hurt me;

You are weightless,

No longer burdened by an anchor

Heavy with candor

Yet still naive enough

To forget the Ocean floor

Is volcanic

And silent,

And a lung full of water

Let’s a dead body rise

Like a phoenix

From the very

Ashes you at one time

Hoped for the privilege

To cry over.

But the seagulls are gossips

Loyal only to the source

Of their suppers

And She is

Far crueler than

I could ever hope to be

Lauren Vogel is a college student, writer, aspiring filmmaker, and excellent amateur baker.