worldstory by Alicia Turner (Appalachia, 26)

Words change worlds.

Me,
I’m a “glass half-empty” kind-of-girl. Not a pessimist. Just like to drink.

A lot. I’m never all that thirsty but I’m thirsty. My thirst is unquenchable.

Once, a friend of a friend told me that I “wrote people into weapons,” and I
took it as an insult. Adding (impulse) insult to injury.

As if that meant that I were an honest killer,

that my words were raw in their wanting,
a bare-knuckled knock-out
symphony of sirens
calling out for anyone.

As if being a killer who claimed their kills made the slaughter less raw, real,
and reaching.

A lot. A lot of times I play it cool. Like a faucet.
​
Drip
   Drip
       Drop.



Alicia Turner holds an MA in English and is an English Instructor, poet, & storyteller. She believes that writing is welcoming yourself back home. You can find her jotting down confessional, conversational tidbits of every-day life somewhere in WV. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Four Lines (4lines), CTD's ‘Pen-2-Paper’ project, Voicemail Poems, FreezeRay Poetry, Drunk Monkeys, Luna Luna, Defunkt Magazine, Sybil Journal, The Daily Drunk, ExPat Press, Rejection Letters Press, Screen Door Review, J Journal Literary Magazine, Sledgehammer Lit, Taint Taint Taint Magazine, Cartridge Lit., Space City Underground, Anti-Heroin Chic, Pink Apple Press, Luphyr Magazine, The Expressionist Literary Magazine, among others.