A copperhead slinks out of the pontoon’s
bilge pipe; the extra small floaties, now,
are not enough.
She flexes the word that her coy
stomach withheld for nine months:
Hurry!
The toddler’s new neck-tail kinks
and wags – folds he has to learn
sometime and I have to drive into a paper clip
big enough for refrigerator drawings.
————
Jerrod Schwarz is an MFA student at the University of Tampa and is also the managing poetry editor for Driftwood Press. He has been published in Dirty Chai, Scapegoat, Four Ties Literary Review, and others. The above things are a little mundane. In his day to day life, Jerrod does whatever he can to escape the heat of his Floridian climate, and has been known to take part in staring contests with alligators who would challenge an otherwise refreshing swim.
THE FEM 