Beach Dweller Manifesto

I hated the close of the year
before it ever became
popular, believing the digits
themselves to be ominous-

a number left behind
vanishes into sea,
while a bottle emerges,
containing words
of imminent promise.

I stretch my arm forward:
the bottle tumbles past, followed
by another, until I give up
the catch, and the hunt.

By the end of every year,
I’m ready to begin again.

Facing the winter
with four pairs of new socks
and my eroding good looks,
I push my chest forward
and laugh. They will never stop me.
Let them try.

 

 

About the Poet:
Leah Mueller is an independent writer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of one chapbook, Queen of Dorksville, and two full-length books, Allergic to Everything and The Underside of the Snake. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Blunderbuss, Memoryhouse, Outlook Springs, Atticus Review, Sadie Girl Press, Origins Journal, Silver Birch Press, Cultured Vultures, Quail Bell, and many others. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry contest.

 

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