The West Review
  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Contact
    • Masthead
  • Current Issue
  • Shop
    • Bookstore
    • Subscriptions
  • Archives
  • Blog

Katey Linskey
​
Sprinting on Sprained Ankles

 
                                    You do not have to be good. 
                                    You do not have to walk on your knees 
                                    For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

                                                                        -Mary Oliver


rain drips from the trailer 
onto my forehead. 
 
                                                           it feels like a communion.
 
and i'm working on letting things feel holy,
 
                                           on letting things sit
                                                                        a little longer.
                       
i'm trying to be more
 
            than a vehicle
 
                                                           driven by desire,
 
tired of burning
                                            each time i imagine a distance.
 
i'm thinking
about all the times
 
             people have said you'll be eaten alive.
 
i've already made short work of myself— 
 
                                                        i sprint on sprained ankles,
 
cut no slack
for someone with a long list of bruises.
 
at every desert's mouth, my knees
 
                                are the only place i have
                                              to stand.





​NEXT





​
Katey Linskey is a writer with poetry out in Rise Up Review and The West Review. She draws from her experiences growing up in Boston and later living in India and Guatemala. She spent six years working in global health and currently works as a ghostwriter. 
  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Contact
    • Masthead
  • Current Issue
  • Shop
    • Bookstore
    • Subscriptions
  • Archives
  • Blog