SWWIM sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.

Election Returns

SWWIM Every Day
by Christy Prahl
 

I wake up lonely
as fog.
So many of us

adrift on life rafts
after a break in the barge.
We dream up archipelagos

rich in coconut
and boar,
yelling to strangers

is it land?
just mirage,
our voices hoarse,

arms weary of rowing.
And what next,
anyway?

We’ve all read
our dog-eared
Lord of the Flies.

We know how close
we get to feral
when pushed.

Push us, we think.
We’re half
crime already.

listen

Christy Prahl is the author of the collections We Are Reckless (Cornerstone Press, 2023), With Her Hair on Fire (Roadside Press, 2025), and Catalog of Labors (Unsolicited Press, forthcoming 2026). A multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has been featured in Poetry Daily, Tar River Poetry, Louisville Review, CALYX, and others. She splits her time between a small workers’ cottage in Chicago and refurbished Quonset hut in southwest Michigan.

 

My Daughter's Potato