We cannot speak the truth with

our own two lips. We cannot see past

our own two eyes. We cannot understand with

what we have inside between two ears. We hear

only conveniency for the mind.

Listen.

You will find earnestness among all

sides. There is no need to deny. For where

there is error that falls into the laps of all,

a light ripples in the night. The same light that sheds

a tear. Bite your teeth and look yourself in the eye.

Laughs the light: “I am not afraid to see in the dark.”

Margaret Marcum lives in Delray Beach with her three cats, Angel, Adam, and Alice. She recently graduated from the MFA program in creative writing at Florida Atlantic University. Her literary interests include ecofeminism and healing the collective through personal narrative. Her poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, NonBinary Review, Scapegoat Review, October Hill Magazine, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, and Children, Churches, and Daddies, among others. She was a finalist for the 2021 Rash Award in Poetry sponsored by Broad River Review.