Six Flags trips are for funnel cake, 
but Sam loves to ride the tallest coaster 

in Texas, wants to see what the cirrus 
look like up close—tiny vapor 

under microscope. She screams 
in laughter, menace minus self- 

doubt, small frame whipped & thrown 
like a child’s toy but once the train car 

slows to its finish, she’s itching again. 
What else can she survive? 

My feet beg for soil, long to dig toes 
into cool dirt, pray to the gravity that pins 

me to the surface. I call it grounding. 
But those clouds. Wrench 

my neck to get a better look— 
How do cumulus taste? 

Are stratus like cotton candy, nimbus 
like watermelon? I need to know 

if the sunset turns them sour, sweet, 
more umami? I try to will myself braver.  

Grip the bar that holds me in place, 
barely can keep my eyes open—I just hold on. 

Sarah Karowski (she/her) recently finished her MFA at the Mississippi University for Women. Her work has been in Prospectus: A Literary Offering and Mad Swirl among others, as well as in anthologies with Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Moonstone Arts Center, and is forthcoming in anthologies with Five South and Prickly Pear Press. Sarah is also the social media advisor for Thimble Literary Magazine.