shapes of blue, by McKenna Themm

The Scream, by Edvard Munch (Norway) 1893

shapes of blue 

I will envy the birds upon whose wings 
the crimson rays of a lying sun fall, 

a wine that courses through the lungs of things 
pulses now and threatens to silence all.

But the way vodka sauce paints the canvas 
of every kitchen I’ve ever danced in,  

the ceaseless tide and unsteady sky kiss 
between the people I have never been. 

I scream through doors, echoes in midnight hues
that find their way across the walls I breathe.

I do not feel their pretty shapes of blue 
and cannot return to the winding sea—  

           do you now hear me locked within this house,
           a madness felt by those who go without. ​

McKenna Themm

McKenna Themm is an MFA student at San Diego State University. Her poems have been published by The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Poet, Bryant Literary Review, The Evening Street Press & Review, The Headlight Review, and New Plains Review, among others. Her chapbook Ever Yours, Vincent is forthcoming from dancing girl press. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of boats against the current, the managing editor at The Los Angeles Review, a Content Strategist at Archer Education, and the MFA Director’s Assistant at SDSU.