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.
A woman stares in a mirror, beholds herself. We in the audience pause to take her in, too. Her brow furrows. Eyes critical slits, we follow her gaze up and down her body. Opening a drawer she pulls out a fettling knife, gets to work, carving slabs, trimming. Stepping back to appraise each new line, each curve, the ratio of waist to hip, breasts uplifted with the edge of her potter’s rib. Now to the face where a straight needle is needed. Her eyes examine her eyes: she shifts them a little further apart on either side of her newly upturned nose, admires the perfect symmetry. A pile of cast-off clay lies at her feet.
The lights come up— popcorn crumbs dimple my thighs.
Betsy Mars is a prize-winning poet, photographer, and an editor at Gyroscope Review. Her poetry has recently appeared or is upcoming in ONE ART, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Rat’s Ass Review, among others. In 2021, Betsy’s poems were nominated for Best of the Net as well as the Pushcart prize. Her photos have appeared in RATTLE’s Ekphrastic Challenge, Redheaded Stepchild, and Spank the Carp. Her chapbook, In the Muddle of the Night, was co-authored with Alan Walowitz.
