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LOTTIE STEPHENS


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Breathing Underwater: A Poetry Anthology (2025)


Head in the sand


I spent so many nights with the wrong people

Swimming chartered waters because I’m far too shallow

To tackle the deep end of my

throat

still can’t swallow

I wallow

Drifting

It’s easier to avoid the facts -

I can’t allow myself to open up like

that

I’d rather bathe in my own

warmer waters

I can craft moonbeams, and swirl your locks in the weeds

Blow bubbles

Watch them cast rainbows

Across your irises




Build a sandcastle

Lie in the beds we’ve made for ourselves

Crystal empire

Conquerors of riptides and gushes




And when I close my eyes to sleep

The surface is still so far away.

The truths sitting above

In oily blemishes

Untouched.