The cold water makes my lips burn
Pink and red
Cherry and chocolate
Miles away, I’m choking on a broken promise
How easy it is to reach for something close by
How easy it is to not reach at all
Miles away, my sister is flying across the Pacific Ocean
The cold water of the ocean in winter
But the water where she’s going is warm and full of life
Miles away, my sister throws me a beautiful black seashell
From the other side of the world
I catch it in my hand
Jamison Conforto is a literary agent and an award-winning writer. He grew up among the fields and mountains of the Salt Lake Valley, where much of his work was inspired. Conforto’s literary work has appeared in Spare Change Literary Magazine, Lupercalia Press, The America Library of Poetry, Exposed Bone, and Eber and Wein, among others. His poetry collection “Antelope Boy” received recognition at the Sigma Tau Delta Centennial Convention held in St. Louis and in the 2024 Utah Original Writing Competition held by SLCC. He served as a poetry editor of Southern Utah University’s undergraduate literary magazine for their 2024 edition, and graduated from that university with a degree in creative writing that same year. You can find out more at https://www.jamisonconforto.com/.
Featured image by Bogdan P on Unsplash.
