White-Tailed Deer Elegy

I’m dark-eyed and formless,
crossing country- a bullet train,

At times, I think
I have run enough
and yet, every time
my racing, timid heart

sounds like an alarm

from the wild marshlands,
the tall meadow grass,
the tree that holds me like a daughter
against its splintering bark.

I’m crying fairy dust
as I travel knee-deep in mud and ivy.
From the corners of my eyes:
a pale shine on
skin and plant matter.

I hold the waking sun on my back,
racing her to the edge of the mountain
where the light hits last.

I’m shaking
shaking off reins and blinds that hold me silent,
shaking in the body of a little girl, controlled by fear,
shaking in the mouth of a child
who doesn’t know how to say no.

I clatter around the attic of her throat,
trying to make enough noise so that
she will hear my plea- but it’s too late
for me

and I know she can only hear my florals,
not my thunder.

          I wake with my heels in the sand,
buried once over with every wave that crawls up
          my horizontal body.

          Body like a moon on the edge of universe
rotating softly like a dancer-
          bound to never cease moving.

I lie
eyes open like water droplets
on a beach, I visited once and never left,
the ocean water- forming a wall
between me and him.

No. I see it’s not a wall but instead a bridge-
to a place only I can go,

that calls my name like honey across
yarrow and goldenrod.
A map- written on my body,
which I mistook
for stars.

Emma Paris is a 17-year-old poet hailing from Putney, Vermont. She has been writing poetry intensively for over 7 years. Some of her most recent publications and accomplishments include: Gold and Silver Keys from Scholastic Art and Writing Awards 2024; poetry published in Chautauqua “Close Encounters” 2023; attending the Governors Institute of the Arts 2022 in Castleton, Vermont. She is an alum of the Ruth Stone House Next Galaxy Retreat. Emma has been published in The Brattleboro Reformer and VTDigger through the Young Writers Project, and her poetry has been featured in Poems Around Town and Poem City programs across the country. She has poetry in the upcoming issues of Zaum Magazine 28th Issue, and Wyldcraft Literary Magazine Spring/Summer Issue, respectively. Emma is a Youth Poet Laureate of Vermont 2024 runner-up.