in a song
in a rage

sur la plage
on this page,

“sheshesheshe
shells, see? se
she sells, see
shesheshe, self”

on a shelf—
what did she
really say?

on a shelf—
what did she
betray

when she made a sound
like the wave that hits
every ear, shell held
against cartilage—against
Carthage, Dido, did you
tell the sea story differently?

asked Scylla, ask Charybdis,
said Dido—please, let the
monster in me, in us, speak,
tidally gently

wavebroken voices

echo endlessly

Emily Bowles has published two chapbooks, both of which focus on the lives of two women who occupied the edges of others’ stories, and she loves seeing people discover the power of their voices through poetry, storytelling, and other acts of creating.