Alicia Turner

 unprompted, my friend’s daughter told me to “write a poem about Catwoman”

we develop habits from harm / because how we handle trauma / is not how we handle trauma / you're fight / me / i'm all flight / but we already knew that / i leap /impulse dive-deep into the sound of moving cars, buildings, arms / where depth knows no distance / where pain stops and starts / the source can be guarded / distance be daring / here / deviation deserving / me / i'm all flight / no landing / cuts be valleys / focus be fog / me / driver / you / all passenger seat/ all sidekick / sold on someone else’s skin / sometimes / i claw my way out / sometimes/ i’m unaware that i’m above myself / sometimes / i’m all instinct / all habit / still / what's heroic is healing from a burning building that i pulled yourself out of / especially when i’m the building & the smoke / especially when i’m holding the match & scaling the window

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Alicia Turner holds an MA in English and is a grant writer & storyteller. She can mostly be found writing confessional, conversational poetry in an over-priced apartment somewhere in WV. Her piece, 'The Anxiety (A),' was published in CTD's ‘Pen-2-Paper’ project and her poem “oh, my darling / this is me in water” is now featured in Voicemail Poem’s Spring 2021 issue. Spoiler Alert: She would like you to know that WV is wildly misinterpreted in popular culture (* but wishes her life was accompanied by a sick banjo dueling montage and side of sweet tea – always)."