Sophia Isabella Murray is 10% witch, 10% poet, 10% hermit…
after Nayyirah Waheed
We are quiet now
tired
clipped tones thrown
from the dark place
in our throats
holding space for
everyone else
above our breasts
our chests beneath
water
shoulder blades
carrying the weight
we hang
silently on hooks
at the door
chipping away
never ending lists
on the walls
we cling
curled on the floor in the
way we were and are
always will be
behind closed doors
tired
the whore
the mother
the healer
the seeker
the leader
and the child
we fall in the arms of each other
we look in the eyes of each other
for sleep
Sophia Isabella Murray is 10% witch, 10% poet, 10% hermit and 100% mother. She is also not very good at Mathematics so tries to use her words instead. During a prolonged stay indoors along with the rest of the world, she decided to put the ukulele down and only write the lyrics; someone kindly informed her it was actually just called poetry. She lives with her husband, children and her familiar - assuming the form of a small, angry terrier - in a house on the ley lines surrounded by the stormy Northumberland hills. Sophia has been published in various anthologies by Blood Moon Poetry Press, Mum Poem Press, Sunday Mornings at the River, Bent Key, The 6ress and Free Verse Revolution Lit. Her first collection, The Alchemist’s Daughter, was released October 2022 by Cast Iron Poetry - Time is an Ocean Press. You can view her work online at Instagram: @sim_poetry