S.S. Scarlett
There is a blood river between my thighs and
I am drowning
My mother wants me to make a raft of myself but
I’ve always wanted to breathe
underwater; to be underwater
I tell her about Aphrodite,
beauty born from men
Born for men
I ask what would’ve happened if she stayed in the water
Aphrodite shakes her head; nothing is this easy
There is no option to form gills,
to handle Poseidon’s trident
The water has memory,
and remembers it’s ruled
by men
I am a vessel
I am a ship
I sail bloody waters
I do not navigate them
Mollie McMullan is a sophomore English creative writing major at SUNY Geneseo. In her work, she tends to focus on issues regarding womanhood and control. When she’s home on Long Island, she can be found scavenging the beach for sea glass and trying to train her untrainable dog.