Emerald Coast Writers Inc.

SLOW DROWN

Whitney Egstad

Liquid quick
and dark like villains,
they haunted depths,
crept into sea shadows
and vomited a plague of vandals
to blacken the breath of the world
in toxic thrusts,
tickle the throats of waves.
A sad surf pants and coughs on
shores forlorn while we catch the small hands
of our children and pull them
from their sandcastles. They weep
oil trickles in thick clots
from their eyelids.

Whitney Egstad studies poetry at the University of South Florida and is currently applying to MFA programs. Her work is forthcoming in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival Anthology in 2011, but this is her first online publication. She would like to thank the West Florida Literary Federation's online journal, The Spill, for its creative action and perseverance in maintaining awareness about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. She can be contacted as wee:mail.usf.edu.

The Spill

In 2010, when the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill exploded and threatened the way of life that Gulf Coast residents know and love, West Florida Literary Federation offered an outlet for expression. During the six months when the uncapped well gushed, and for one year following the successful capping of the well, writers, poets and photographers from across the country sent us their words, thoughts and feelings, thereby providing a literary record of the Deep Water Horizon environmental disaster. Here are the best of the submissions.

The Spill Detail

SLOW DROWN

SLOW DROWN

The Spill

CONTENTS

Photo Essay

Prose

Poetry

Short Fiction