Swimming words
Swim through bathtub plugholes
Stained with wetness of my world
Lukewarm in their light
They lick off sweaty shower walls
Swell like fertile soil on my hands
Swimming words
Swim through rhyme-rusty taps
toward the void
My hands prayer-deep In them
Rescuing verbs and nouns
Plucking sense from the air to drown it
Louella Sullivan learned to type poems one-handed whilst bouncing small babies on her lap. She did an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes in 2014 where she completed her thesis Bitten under Robert Berold. She is a Drama, History and English teacher as well as a part-time lecturer at Rhodes University. She has been published in Aerodrome, New Contrast, New Coin and Itch. Her poems have been described as “polished, poised and vivid”. In 2016, her poem “Refugee” was longlisted for the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award.