Toxic

I’m so tall, I’m so tall
Yet you raised me to be so small

As waves wash an uncaring shore
So I would wash you with my love

As they caress rocks and pebbles
I used to kiss your uncaring cheek

Waited with the patience of waves
For you to regard me

To see the woman I had become
As someone you could be proud of

That tide went out years ago
I now walk a different shore

I’m so tall, I’m so tall
Yet you raised me to be so small

Kim Whysall-Hammond grew up in London in a working-class family, but now lives deep in the English countryside. She obtained a degree in Astronomy from UCL and has worked in both Climate Research and Telecommunications. A late comer to publishing poems, her poetry has appeared in American Diversity Report, Alchemy Spoon, Amsterdam Quarterly, London Grip, North of Oxford, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Marble Poetry, Crannóg and others. Her speculative poetry has appeared in Andromeda Spaceways, Eternal Haunted Summer, Frozen Wavelets, Kaleidotrope, On Spec, Silver Blade and Star*line. She also has poems in anthologies from Palewell Press, Wild Pressed Books, Milk and Cake Press, Experiments in Fiction and Brigids Gate Press. Find more of her work at https://thecheesesellerswife.wordpress.com/