This month’s Versed in Florida poet is 23-year-old Fort Myers native Shannon Riley. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in creative writing and theatre from Florida Gulf Coast University. She’s now earning her Master’s degree in English from FGCU while working as a creative writing and drama teacher at Gateway Charter High School. She tells WGCU’s Amy Tardif she writes her poems everywhere she can.
Ivory Tower
Wine drips down; ivory tower.
I see red swirling to the drain
like a pretty pool of insanity.
Little boys stomp in mud
little girls play with tea sets.
That's the right mindset
my children. My children.
You will all grow up and old
poppy flowers do what your told.
Suits and dresses
Confessional
Vomit spit skeletal
Ladies tresses
Dance in puddles made of mud
‘Till you see pools of sisters blood,
My children my children.