“Sirenia” by Emily Holland

I fucked a girl with a mermaid
tattooed on her back and felt
something like an ocean move
under me, a falling tide just out

of reach. I melted an ice cube
down her stomach, said here,
I know you’re out of water, said
here, I know you miss the sea.

—–

Emily Holland is a recent graduate of the George Washington University, where she received a B.A. in Creative Writing and English. Her work, which focuses on themes of queerness and place, has been seen in HANDSY and The Sundial Review. When she isn’t writing, she manages a coffee shop in the heart of Washington, D.C.