Sarah Fawn Montgomery
Diagnosis as Fishing Net
Cradle me cold silvered
in rope surely knotted.
I have needed the solidity
that comes from twisting
a body around itself
until there is nowhere
left to go. What is
a net but an attempt
to bind grasping threads?
To weave guesswork into art?
Many slip through holes
but this body is bound
by careful lattice. I am
done thrashing. I accept
this capture. Offering myself
slick on the observation deck
of a ship heading to unknown
harbors, I gasp for breath
caught between sea freedom
and a life swiftly gutted.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Sarah Fawn Montgomery is the author of Halfway from Home (Split/Lip Press), Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir (The Ohio State University Press) and three poetry chapbooks. She has a craft book on unlearning the ableist writing workshop and developing a disabled writing practice forthcoming with Sundress Publications, as well as a collection of flash nonfiction forthcoming with Harbor Editions. She is an associate professor at Bridgewater State University.