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.

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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.