Stone by Lynne Schmidt

I spent years in the damp dark

So that my skin would soften

And tear when I washed ashore.

I cracked like an oyster

And was thrown back in the water

When they found I wasn't worth a pearl anymore.

I swirled in sand that looked like glitter,

It shimmered so brightly,

I mistook it for starlight.

When I finally found land,

The salt on my skin crystallized

Cracked

Calcified.

So that by the time you found me,

I'd already become stone.

Lynne Schmidt (she/her) is a mental health professional in Maine. Her memoir, The Right to Live: A Memoir of Abortion was the Maine Nonfiction Award Winner and a PNWA Literary Contest finalist and her poetry has received the Honorable Mention from Joy of the Pen. Her work has appeared in Royal Rose Literary, Sixty-Four Best Poets of 2018, 2018 Emerging Poets, Frost Meadow Review, Poets of Maine, Poets of New England, Maine Dog Magazine, Alyss Literary, UNE Magazine, Her Kind Vida, and others. Lynne is the founder of AbortionChat, and has been and continues to be a featured poet at events throughout Maine. She prefers the company of her three dogs and one cat to humans.

Twitter: @LynneSchmidt