Twenty Toes

A poem of imprint

I am the earth ball spinning, hot at the core and holding life. They roll out of me, believing themselves sovereign in the waves, as if diving under the surface separates them from my gravity, as if their laughter isn’t tethered to my mycelium. Their footprints sink and fill and bubble-flat — my very existence an umbilical. I stack their impressions into my skin like periwinkle clams pushing into sand. Trace fossils: We were here We were here

Vixen Lea is the pen name for Skye Nicholson. She is in the process of assembling her first book of collected works, Unexpected Alchemy, poems of addiction, reconciliation and beyond, due out by the end of 2021. As a mother of two young children, Skye found freedom from alcohol addiction in 2018. She currently works as an empowerment coach, paying it forward by helping others to find freedom from what may be holding them back. Her writing has appeared in Flying Island literary journal, The Manifest-Station, and can be found on her blog wakinguprazzledazzle.com.