Christina Veladota
A Brief Novel in the Voice of My Anxiety
I confess your insomnia. I confess your insomnia crowded with ghosts. I confess your tarot. Every new hour spins a wheel. Come in, you yell to the no one at the door. I confess I am no one. I confess the history in which I drown. I confess the again & again drowning. I confess the shipwreck. The once billowed sail. You archive your prayers. I was left for dead & the dead came & found me. I confess the rain. I confess the rain bent on trampling your every bone awake.
A Ritual to Connect to Your Drowning
Worry the woods
at the top of the cliff.
Worry the woods
with your pacing.
Let the ocean yawn
& roll its tongue. Leap.
Let roar your body
its slick velocity. Become
the space between sky
& water. Remember your
insomnia as a branch
of wisteria. Become
the topography of your
first lover’s bed. Hold
in your mind your infant
cries. You are the spell
the ocean breaks. You are
its incantation. Utter
the stones in the ocean’s
mouth. Utter the gulls
that flay the floating
shadows of their own
troubled ghosts.
About Christina Veladota
Christina Veladota’s second chapbook, Clutch & Brood, was released this year by Aldrich Press. Published in numerous literary journals such as Hotel Amerika, The Laurel Review, Dialogist, and Winter Tangerine Review, she is a recipient of a 2014 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence award. She currently works as an associate professor of English Composition & Literature at Washington State Community College in Marietta, OH, where she also serves as the coordinator for The WSCC Honors Program.
She can be found on the web at christinaveladotapoetry.com