Bodies born as beast from inside
the cave heavy warm
We cry out fetal
blood rush to palms fingers and toes
Heart to blood-orange sky
umbilical to earth
Morning breaks
the barrier we named night
The body a distant forest
we burn to grow again
—
Sam New is an MFA Poetry candidate at Old Dominion University. She received honorable mention for the 2023 ODU Poetry Prize sponsored by the Academy of American Poets and the Poetry Society of Virginia. Her work appears in Barely South Review, Waccamaw Journal, and Virginia Poets Database. Her work is forthcoming in South Dakota Review, Reverie Magazine, and Constellate.
