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Zone 3 Press, the literary magazine of Austin Peay State University
Volume 38, Issue 2
Volume 38, Issue 2

atrium

  • By Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken

my mother is afraid of the tide so i took her to
the cliffs, took her to the stones where the waves

crash with sound. she did not drown. she took
a stone home with her — she carries it singing
in her pocket still,

                  woman you are not
                  trapped, keep moving
                  we will not be swallowed —

the man i love knows how to drown. to be
carried without fear by something stronger than him.

i come to watch him bob in and out of sight —
abandon himself at the right times

and i sit here
with my oranges — he always comes back.

i can almost hear it, this heart so careful with
the body. pumping, gushing, sinking — my atrium,
hole of the heart that bleeds out and fills up again,
draining itself to drown — mother this is

a type of bravery. as in patience, the water
comes to me and i rinse my hands.

as in this body and its density, as in the tides
i pull from the cores of the men i touch —
as in i will kiss these waves when i am ready.

About Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken

Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken grew up in Amsterdam and holds a BA in Photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Netherlands. She is enrolled in the MFA Poetry program at San Diego State University where she received the Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship. She is the Development Director at Poetry International and an instructor for SDSU’s department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies. Her photography has been exhibited in galleries across The Netherlands and published in numerous magazines and papers alongside her non-fiction writing, such as De Volkskrant, Focus Magazine and others. Her poetry has been published by Michigan Quarterly Review, Foothill Poetry Journal and Pineapple Road Press. She lives in Encinitas with her soon to be husband and many plants.

Zone 3 Press, the literary magazine of Austin Peay State University
Volume 38, Issue 2
Volume 38, Issue 2

atrium

  • By Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken

my mother is afraid of the tide so i took her to
the cliffs, took her to the stones where the waves

crash with sound. she did not drown. she took
a stone home with her — she carries it singing
in her pocket still,

                  woman you are not
                  trapped, keep moving
                  we will not be swallowed —

the man i love knows how to drown. to be
carried without fear by something stronger than him.

i come to watch him bob in and out of sight —
abandon himself at the right times

and i sit here
with my oranges — he always comes back.

i can almost hear it, this heart so careful with
the body. pumping, gushing, sinking — my atrium,
hole of the heart that bleeds out and fills up again,
draining itself to drown — mother this is

a type of bravery. as in patience, the water
comes to me and i rinse my hands.

as in this body and its density, as in the tides
i pull from the cores of the men i touch —
as in i will kiss these waves when i am ready.

Volume 38, Issue 2
Volume 38, Issue 2

atrium

  • By Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken

my mother is afraid of the tide so i took her to
the cliffs, took her to the stones where the waves

crash with sound. she did not drown. she took
a stone home with her — she carries it singing
in her pocket still,

                  woman you are not
                  trapped, keep moving
                  we will not be swallowed —

the man i love knows how to drown. to be
carried without fear by something stronger than him.

i come to watch him bob in and out of sight —
abandon himself at the right times

and i sit here
with my oranges — he always comes back.

i can almost hear it, this heart so careful with
the body. pumping, gushing, sinking — my atrium,
hole of the heart that bleeds out and fills up again,
draining itself to drown — mother this is

a type of bravery. as in patience, the water
comes to me and i rinse my hands.

as in this body and its density, as in the tides
i pull from the cores of the men i touch —
as in i will kiss these waves when i am ready.

About Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken

Zea Pippi Lotte van der Elsken grew up in Amsterdam and holds a BA in Photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Netherlands. She is enrolled in the MFA Poetry program at San Diego State University where she received the Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship. She is the Development Director at Poetry International and an instructor for SDSU’s department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies. Her photography has been exhibited in galleries across The Netherlands and published in numerous magazines and papers alongside her non-fiction writing, such as De Volkskrant, Focus Magazine and others. Her poetry has been published by Michigan Quarterly Review, Foothill Poetry Journal and Pineapple Road Press. She lives in Encinitas with her soon to be husband and many plants.

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