Poetry by Abby Cothran: I am, I am

I am, I am

1.

I am water pooling around
bare feet at the edge
of the ocean—reminding myself
there is something deeper and darker
than the hollowness inside my body

2.

I am the cosmos: spiraling and expanding
and blinding in my intensity—
I am a moonbeam, I am light:
light that traveled all
this way just to reach me

3.

I am atrophied muscles and spoiled
milk, rotting fruit, an island eroding
to nothingness;
I am cracking open my own ribcage
to make sure my heart is still beating

4.

I am a wildfire—watch me
take out whole cities
reduce them to grey ash
smudge them between
clean fingertips and sigh