losing our grip on purpose

By Michelle McMillan-Holifield

When your body cuts loose the crust
of its grudges, take notes, for somewhere
in the cove of its skin some love will go rogue
and you will lose the mastery of your mind
and your survival instincts will stumble
over stones set like traps and you will
pick up those stones, turn them over
in your hand, skip them across the frontier
of your disaster and you will fall
in love all over again.

Michelle McMillan-Holifield studied poetry at Delta State University in the Mississippi Delta and is a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee. She pens poetry, book reviews, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Her work has been included in or is forthcoming in Boxcar Poetry Review, Nelle, Sky Island Journal, Stirring, The Collagist, The Main Street Rag, Whale Road Review, and Windhover, among others. She hopes you one day find her poetry tacked to a tree somewhere in the Alaskan Wild.