I Think God Is Sitting
Poetry
by Martina Litty
on my chest. My heart
hurts so badly and not
in the metaphorical way.
My wrists quake
make my hands jitter
and my body is doing
its own thing, shaking
like a thrumming harp wire.
I was afraid in bed and poured
a cloying orange 5-hour Energy
into an empty
mug and read a blue whale wiki
like it was the morning paper.
Did you know their songs
sweep thousands of miles
of sea? Did you know
their hearts are big enough
for a whole human to curl up
inside? Five feet high
and four feet wide.
Did you know they’re warm-blooded,
sunlight-warm?
Imagine having that much room for love.
Imagine that much heat.
Blue whales don't sing
from their mouths, don't sing
without a thousand tons
of sea pressing on their backs.
My chest tightens with every
breath.
I want to call my mother.
I want to call my mother.
Martina Litty is an undergraduate student studying creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her poems have appeared in Poets Reading the News, High Shelf Press, and Witness: Appalachia to Hatteras, the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets and Student Poets series. She was the founding editor-in-chief of Torch Literary Arts Magazine, which won first place with special merit with American Scholastic Press Association for its inaugural edition. Litty enjoys writing, volunteer work, toasted PB&J sandwiches, (re)watching the movie D.E.B.S. (2004), and sleeping. She’s currently trying therapy. She thinks it’s going okay.