I've always got a question,
like why is the dingy mug
in the corner of the cupboard
feeling so sad?
So I dive in,
and my permeable fabric
lets the waters seep into me,
while every fiber of my
life force expands, until I
understand, so heavy
with porcelain sadness.
But I can never shatter.
The tension in my ivory
skin refuses to release.
I don't drown either.
I just lie compressed,
icky, dripping, squinting
through fluid ounces of filtered sun,
until somebody comes to lick
all of my empathy off of me.
Lydia Rae Bush is a poet exploring themes of embodiment and social-emotional development. Rae’s work is Best of the Net nominated and appears in publications such as Querencia Press, Corporeal, and Sage Cigarettes Magazine. When not writing, Lydia can be found singing and dancing, especially in bed when she is supposed to be going to sleep. Her chapbook Free Bleeding is out now with dogleech books.
*Tea is the Author’s Drink of Choice has previously appeared in Keeper, Seeker, Dragon of the Sea (Bottlecap Press, 2025).