‘My New Normal' and ‘Meditation on the Length of a Life’
Poetry
by Bethany Jarmul
Meditation on the Length of a Life
Time grows slippery like a fluttering
Bluegill, when you try to capture
it between your palms, but when you
want it to rush like a river current
through your fingers, it thickens
to muddy milkshake, then cement.
No one has invented a yardstick
for the lives of the not yet
dead, so we stand back-to-back
like children at recess, hoping
we’ve grown an inch during math
class, hoping to be the tallest,
to live the longest, hoping that’s
what matters in the end.
About the Author
Bethany Jarmul is an Appalachian writer and poet. She’s the author of two chapbooks and one poetry collection. Her work has been published in many magazines including Rattle, Brevity, Salamander, and One Art. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature 2023 and Best Small Fictions 2024, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and Wigleaf Top 50. Connect with her at bethanyjarmul.com or on social media: @BethanyJarmul.
About the Artist
Kate Horsley’s illustrations are made from a combination of collage, ink and watercolour paintings and fabric. She has taught photography workshops for a number of years in the UK and France, specialising in alternative processes like wet cyanotype, wetplate collodion, gum bichromate and polaroid emulsion lifts. Kate’s main subject-matter is the natural world and she experiments with handmade botanical inks, prints on birch bark, hand-coloured images, and prints made from leaves, flowers and grasses. Visit Kate’s website here.