Element

Bobbie Sparrow

Definition 1. A simple substance that cannot be reduced to smaller chemical parts.

2. Earth, air, fire and water.

3. An essential or characteristic part of something abstract.

When I say I swim for my life they don’t believe me.

I told one person the truth about the dark lake,

he is a carrier of secrets; he doesn’t need me to be bright.

I have tried to reduce myself, become a mother sauce.

Velouté perhaps, so I can be taken without fear of dangerous

outcomes, I don’t want to upset the digestive balance.

I live in a matrix where my surrender is of equal importance

to my bloom, can you picture this? No, nor can I.

The challenge with abstraction is no one listens, heads tilt.

I read the earth is a self-sustaining organism. This helps.

I have no wishes except a trip in a hot air balloon.

I know someone who knows someone who set herself alight.

I already told you about water; I also bathe every night.

I soak until my skin is red, my heart rate increases.

Why? you ask. I know what it’s like to be dead.

BOBBIE SPARROW is a poet and Psychotherapist living in Ireland. Her collection The Weight of Blood was published by Yaffle press in 2024. Bobbie’s poems are published in many national and international journals including: Southword, Bangor Literary Journal, Crannog, Cordite, Skylight 47, Honest Ulsterman and Abridged. She is currently working on her second collection.