Search this site
Embedded Files
Avalon
  • Home
  • Spring 2025
    • Poetry
      • A Soulmate
      • All the Globe's a Stage
      • At The Water's Edge
      • Big Sisters
      • Cotton-Stuffed Heart
      • Doom, Sleep, Mastication, and My Godson Jeremiah
      • Foolish Lemons
      • I Know Icarus
      • nightstand as self-portrait
      • one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight days
      • Pasiphaë
      • Poem for a Stranger
      • Pilot of the Hollow Vessel
      • Rehoming; or, a habitat for creatures who seek darkness and cold
      • Sanctuary
      • The World Inside a Sidewalk Crack
      • Year of the Frog
      • you think it's easy opening doors in january?
      • Your Haiku
    • Fiction & Plays
      • Calculated Sympathy
      • Indigo
      • Maurice
      • The Cradle
      • The Hollow Room
    • Visual Art
      • A Farmer in Vinales Cuba
      • A Tobacco Farmer in Viñales, Cuba
      • Thank you, please come again
      • Self Reflective Self Portrait 5
    • Contributors
  • Past Issues
    • Fall 2024
      • Poetry
      • Fiction & Plays
      • Visual Art
      • Contributors
    • Spring 2024
      • Poetry
      • Fiction
      • Visual Art
      • Contributors
    • Fall 2023
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories
      • Visual Art
      • Contributors
    • Spring 2023
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Fall 2022
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Spring 2022
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Fall 2021
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Spring 2021
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Spring 2020
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
  • About
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Submit Your Work
  • Instagram
  • SU.edu
Avalon
  • Home
  • Spring 2025
    • Poetry
      • A Soulmate
      • All the Globe's a Stage
      • At The Water's Edge
      • Big Sisters
      • Cotton-Stuffed Heart
      • Doom, Sleep, Mastication, and My Godson Jeremiah
      • Foolish Lemons
      • I Know Icarus
      • nightstand as self-portrait
      • one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight days
      • Pasiphaë
      • Poem for a Stranger
      • Pilot of the Hollow Vessel
      • Rehoming; or, a habitat for creatures who seek darkness and cold
      • Sanctuary
      • The World Inside a Sidewalk Crack
      • Year of the Frog
      • you think it's easy opening doors in january?
      • Your Haiku
    • Fiction & Plays
      • Calculated Sympathy
      • Indigo
      • Maurice
      • The Cradle
      • The Hollow Room
    • Visual Art
      • A Farmer in Vinales Cuba
      • A Tobacco Farmer in Viñales, Cuba
      • Thank you, please come again
      • Self Reflective Self Portrait 5
    • Contributors
  • Past Issues
    • Fall 2024
      • Poetry
      • Fiction & Plays
      • Visual Art
      • Contributors
    • Spring 2024
      • Poetry
      • Fiction
      • Visual Art
      • Contributors
    • Fall 2023
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories
      • Visual Art
      • Contributors
    • Spring 2023
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Fall 2022
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Spring 2022
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Fall 2021
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Spring 2021
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
    • Spring 2020
      • Poetry
      • Short Stories and Plays
      • Visual Art
  • About
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Submit Your Work
  • Instagram
  • SU.edu
  • More
    • Home
    • Spring 2025
      • Poetry
        • A Soulmate
        • All the Globe's a Stage
        • At The Water's Edge
        • Big Sisters
        • Cotton-Stuffed Heart
        • Doom, Sleep, Mastication, and My Godson Jeremiah
        • Foolish Lemons
        • I Know Icarus
        • nightstand as self-portrait
        • one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight days
        • Pasiphaë
        • Poem for a Stranger
        • Pilot of the Hollow Vessel
        • Rehoming; or, a habitat for creatures who seek darkness and cold
        • Sanctuary
        • The World Inside a Sidewalk Crack
        • Year of the Frog
        • you think it's easy opening doors in january?
        • Your Haiku
      • Fiction & Plays
        • Calculated Sympathy
        • Indigo
        • Maurice
        • The Cradle
        • The Hollow Room
      • Visual Art
        • A Farmer in Vinales Cuba
        • A Tobacco Farmer in Viñales, Cuba
        • Thank you, please come again
        • Self Reflective Self Portrait 5
      • Contributors
    • Past Issues
      • Fall 2024
        • Poetry
        • Fiction & Plays
        • Visual Art
        • Contributors
      • Spring 2024
        • Poetry
        • Fiction
        • Visual Art
        • Contributors
      • Fall 2023
        • Poetry
        • Short Stories
        • Visual Art
        • Contributors
      • Spring 2023
        • Poetry
        • Short Stories and Plays
        • Visual Art
      • Fall 2022
        • Poetry
        • Short Stories and Plays
        • Visual Art
      • Spring 2022
        • Poetry
        • Short Stories and Plays
        • Visual Art
      • Fall 2021
        • Poetry
        • Short Stories and Plays
        • Visual Art
      • Spring 2021
        • Poetry
        • Short Stories and Plays
        • Visual Art
      • Spring 2020
        • Poetry
        • Short Stories and Plays
        • Visual Art
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Submit Your Work
    • Instagram
    • SU.edu

 Spring 2025     Poetry 

At the Water's Edge

Lucy Wojciechowski

Winner of the 2025 S. Gordden Link Poetry Award

She was—

half a thing,

half a thought—

and then

gone,

a hand,

pale—

swallowed by the flood,

her breath caught on silence.

 

The water’s mouth,

wide and soft

as a lover’s,

pulled her with an ease

the earth had not.

 

Mermaid?

No—

not in the songs they sing.

Not in the myth.

 

Only the weight of it—

sinking,

sinking—

the world of soft flowers and cold

becoming unmade.

 

Her fingers—

broken petals in the current.

No one speaks of what she leaves behind—

the eyes,

still wet

with that last breath.

A Soulmate

All the Globe's a Stage

At The Water's Edge

Big Sisters

Cotton-Stuffed Heart

Doom, Sleep, Mastication, and My Godson Jeremiah

Foolish Lemons

I Know Icarus

nightstand as self-portrait

one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight days

Pasiphaë

Poem for a Stranger

Pilot of the Hollow Vessel

Rehoming; or, a habitat for creatures who seek darkness and cold

Sanctuary

The World Inside a Sidewalk Crack

Year of the Frog

you think it's easy opening doors in january?

Your Haiku

© 2025 Shenandoah University All rights reserved.
Instagram
Report abuse
Report abuse