The Thing About Silverfish
is that they’re not as terrifying as everyone thinks.
Didn’t you once wish to have extra limbs
for carrying more than you could hold, or for love
or being better able to touch the moon?
To be undone by someone, scale by silver scale,
until they fell like sleet through the sofa cushions
and you announced yourself naked,
a bear coming out from hibernation.
Or to live best in the dark, in small spaces,
in bathtubs no one was using,
so as to never see
the things you’ll spend a lifetime
learning to unsee-
your grandfather in your sister’s room,
a hatchet buried in something
that wasn’t a tree.
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, Winter Tangerine Review, Electric Cereal, and more. In March 2013 she won a National Gold Medal for her poetry collection and a National Silver Medal for her writing portfolio in the 2013 National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her work can be found at writingsforwinter.tumblr.com
–Art by Karamelo
–Art by Mariya Petrova-Existencia