Shae Savoy

On the Murder of Michelle Tate when we were both 16

kansas hawthorn
tree of winterhearts
bared, headless
he chopped and tossed
 
her down a well
fingers dozens
clustered clutch
burst the berries
 
at their flametips
redstained throatbirds
we’ve been forced
to swallow
 
remaining trees
scratch the sky
wind hollows
winterscreaming
 
through the branches
floodlit plain
pockmarked root
sockets empty
 
where lithelimbed
saplings once stood



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Shae Savoy is a Seattle poet and water cartographer whose roots tap back toward Kansas. She has published five chapbooks and her work has most recently appeared in J Journal: New Writing on Justice; Sinister Wisdom; WomenArts Quarterly; Pocket Guide; Paper Nautilus; Common Ground Review and Trivia: Voices of Feminism. She blogs at www.shaesavoy.wordpress.com.