down the shore
​

lick my lips and taste salt
as if I was just in tears 

the air’s always stirring here 
restless as my lover 

I tell him if he looks at
another woman, I’ll 

drown myself in the sea 
then I laugh so he’ll laugh too 


​

Sussex County, DE​

putrid farmland, vines 
growing over rotting houses 
like scar tissue 

sunburn sting against
lace, heat captured like 
lightning bugs beneath flesh 

trailer park strays nuzzle
my calves and the lazy-voiced locals 
assure me that no, I don’t 
want to pet their dog 

sky widens as you near the coast
and the houses are 
pressure washed pristine 

there’s something about going 
as far as you can, where your
only options are to 
turn back or drown 

that we consider
paradise 

​

---

(down the shore was previously published by Pulp Poets Press)

Rebecca Kokitus is a poet residing in the Philadelphia area. She is a student at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she studies English with a concentration in Writing. Her work has been published and is forthcoming in over a dozen literary journals. Some of her most recent publications include poems in Mookychick Magazine, SOFT CARTEL, and Lonesome October Lit. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @rxbxcca_anna, and you can read more of her writing on her website.