Only the ghosts love who they can love.

After my mouth closed I behead fish

& flowers with the same scissors,

everything beautiful in the river

where he left me to rim with salt.

Belly up,

that’s all that matters,

he set the bears upon me.

Their throbbing haunches,

their milk teeth falling like pianos.

Inside this cod is a necklace of cells

he has never touched.

What I would give to be the goddess

of their newness,

to be something

he hasn’t yet ruined.
 
 
 
 

Meggie Royer is a writer and photographer from the Midwest who is currently majoring in Psychology at Macalester College. Her poems have previously appeared in Words Dance Magazine, The Harpoon Review, Melancholy Hyperbole, and more. She has won national medals for her poetry and a writing portfolio in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and was the Macalester Honorable Mention recipient of the 2015 Academy of American Poets Student Poetry Prize.