Esther Martin

Banyon

I pull my shirt up, watch
skin tighten to my belly in

fluorescent bathroom light at
4am, scared for what brightness

will do to the day, wiping away
what might have been, as it drips down

my leg, flushing its inky redness.
All phantom and shadow, silent  

I can’t keep, silent I never
wanted, silent that holds

the flight of birds
who grab growth from tree top seeds,

stranglers, growing down instead
of up.

Parasites, something
that saps, growing fat, growing warm,

leaving behind a cold that
hits the floor like a stone.

Last night a reminder that my body
is battleground, hungry and lost.

Raising a white flag, asking
for mercy.

Esther Martin is from Maine and is a student at Bates College. At Bates, she studies geology and chemistry, namely stable isotopes. She works in the summers on the water as a kelp farmer and aquaculture researcher. She has studied kelp’s ability to sequester carbon, oyster growth, and the accessibility of the aquaculture industry to new entrants.