Sarah Diamond Burroway
Crows
As the crow flies, she sees a mosaic of
bright plastic bottles as green water
rocks the silent rhythm of shuttered foundries
where ghosts’ sweat is a blue collar wage.
She is the Ohio. Rolling and flowing
and searching for ebb tide to wash off the pain.
Soundless and soft, she melts in a puddle
shed from a red-rimmed gaze of regret.
As the crow cries, she weeps for the
last, lost hopes of a sad steel town.
Half boarded up, meth’ed up. Dreams fade
for girls who grow up with hopes of a good life.
Ambition forsaken, drowned by defeat.
She is love sick, no hope sick.
Dope sick and nowhere to go but her nest of
cardboard, found objects and fire. She lights up,
breathes in and flies, eyes black like the crow.
~
Sarah Diamond Burroway is a writer and theatre artist from Flatwoods, Kentucky. Sarah’s writing is included in the Women of Appalachia Project Women Speak (2014-2016). Her essays and poetry have been published in The Bitter Southerner’s Folklore Project and The Worcester Journal. Sarah’s plays and monologues have been produced in New York, California, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. She is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Art in Writing at Eastern Kentucky University’s Bluegrass Writers Studio.
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