Wrought & Found

 

Original poems and found images

 

by Mia Sara

 

 

Survivor’s Gilt

 

I should want less
and give more,
but needs have a way

of accumulating.
Look, don’t be fooled
by my sleight of hand.

Isn’t ‘need’ the magic word?
The misdirection
for the big reveal?

Generous with strangers,
I’m looking for ways
to spend the coins

from the heavy sack
I found in the back
of the getaway car.

“Life isn’t fair,”
I tell myself,
every time I win.

Is it survivor’s guilt
if what you lost
is still alive and

renting in Greensboro?
I wasn’t alone,
but I wanted to be,

that’s my gift
to keep on giving,
the price of omission.

Sisterhood is for those
who like to share.
Still, there is a bond,

tenuous as a song,
a jingle, caught
from an open window

on a summer night
that won’t let you sleep.
I’ll sing it out loud,

which will sound, perhaps,
like an excuse,
but left unsung

just might release me
from having to offer
what was never mine to give.

 

***

Mia Sara is an actress and poet living in Los Angeles. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in poemmemoirstory, Pembroke Magazine, The Write Room, PANK, Cultural Weekly, The Kit Kat Review, Forge, The Dirty Napkin, St. Ann’s Review, among others. For more please visit: http://wheretofindmiasara.tumblr.com/