Moisture moves
down my back as I lie
in the dark with strands
of shower-wet hair
stuck to the base
of my neck.
As my eyes leave the ceiling,
I think to move, wondering
if my legs will hold me
like they always do,
or, if this time, I’ll stand
up and dissolve—
a moth too close
to the light.
Bay Area native Marissa Ahmadkhani is a poet. A Best of the Net nominee, she has writing published or forthcoming in Radar Poetry, Cosmonauts Avenue, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Southern Indiana Review, the minnesota review, The West Review, The Journal, and poets.org, where she received the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2015 and 2017. Currently, teaches at UC Irvine and serves as Assistant Editor for The West Review.