Elizabeth Rae Bullmer

My Life as a Starfish

An open wound floating on ocean,
mangled limbs washed upon rocks.

That there could be nearly nothing left
of my body, yet still I would persist.

As if survival were a reflex.
As if they knew I could not bleed.

No blessings. No sympathy. No succor.
No synapses. No sutures. No visible scars.

And they called me a healer.

I did not resume my yoga practice,
nor silently meditate on wholeness.

I did not subsist solely on quinoa
and freshly snipped microgreens.

I sank, heartless, deep beneath sandy
shorelines, sucked salt straight from the sea.

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Elizabeth Rae Bullmer has been writing poetry since the age of seven. Bullmer’s poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts, Peninsula Poets, Her Words, Sky Island Journal, Rockvale Review and The Awakenings Review. Her most recent chapbook, Skipping Stones on the River Styx, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She is a licensed massage and sound therapist and mother of two phenomenal humans, living with four fantastic felines in Kalamazoo, MI.