The Poetry Marathon

How to Get in a Fight

1. Go outside when it is ninety degrees and stand in a line.
2. When you get too hot tell the other people in line you are going over there (points to shaded area) to stand because you are getting burnt.
3. When the next person comes run out of hiding and aggressively yell that you were already in the line while pointing at the spot they are now standing.
4. They will defend themselves saying they didn’t see you and that you weren’t in line and tell you not to sneak up on them in such a manner.

5. The argument has now begun. You are now ready to fight.

Do you walk away?

She is mad at me;
even together we are apart.

I am three and screaming
I am seven and terrified
I am thirteen and suicidal
I am sixteen and at my breaking point
I am twenty two and an alcoholic
I am twenty five and getting my shit together.

I am twenty nine and sober.
I am a deer in headlights.

She is six inches away but we do not speak.

She is terrified I won’t return because that is the mantra

We run until our shoes fall off.

Cold Southern gasoline.

I’m throwing fuel on the fire.

Maggie V. Miles is a recent graduate of CUNY: JJAY School of Criminal Justice with a BFA in English. She is an all around creative force living in New York City using past trauma and recovery to create bodies of work that are thought provoking, light, heavy, and everything in between. This is her first time participating in a writing marathon.