Jessica Wiseman Lawrence

Sand is more than time
or walks parallel to oceans, or sunsets.

I won’t make this poem about sinking
or drawing in wet sand with one finger.

Sand is speckled in her hair, on her scalp.
Sand is pouring out of her sneakers onto the bathroom floor.

I found a grain of it a week later beneath my fingernail,
and a surprise wealth of sand between my sheets.

I’ll never forget the sand in my mouth. I bite down,
and remember that it is not a fragile thing, at all.

JESSICA WISEMAN LAWRENCE is a graduate of Longwood University. You can find her recent work in Silver Birch Press, Zoomoozophone Review, and Third Wednesday, among others. She lives in rural central Virginia, where she is an office manager by day.