By Amanda Butler
I am a bad banshee
because when I scream
I am silent
and I shriek not for death
but because of it
and those I cry out for
are already buried.
Dear Aibell, please excuse
the heart that pounds
the hands that sweat
the lungs that freeze
mid-screech.
Mist fogs my thoughts
and glass shards lodge
in my throat.
I am a bad banshee
because nobody hears me.
Amanda N. Butler is the author of chapbooks effervescent (Dancing Girl Press, 2017), and Tableau Vivant (Dancing Girl Press, 2015), as well as the micro-chapbook “How A Fairy Grows Her Wings” (Origami Poems Project, 2018). Her poetry has been published in rose quartz magazine, Haikuniverse, Hedgerow, and more. She is the Poet Laureate of Oldsmar, FL. She can be found blogging at amandanbutler.wordpress.com and on Twitter @arsamandica.
Silk + Smoke 