Malorie Varnell

Jellyfish, Freshwater (Craspedacusta Sowerbii)

My father, resilient like ice, aware
when he is turned upside down. 

Not bothered by disorientation, always
recovers and flips himself up right.

Seeing him, you’d never know
what he’s lost.

The heaviness he carries—
took his mother twenty-one years to say,
I love you.
His love dissolved by the sun. 

He holds these tight,
shuts me out to stay comfortable,
only hugs for show.

He comes from freshwater, and I
come from salt.

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Malorie Varnell is a student at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, working on her Bachelor of Fine Arts in interior design. Malorie’s love for poetry began after reading her mother’s work. She is moved by how poets tend to look at the world and aspires to become a poet herself.