Jennifer L. Freed

UNSPOKEN, IN THE VOICE OF A

sometimes I want to tell
someone       


but there are too many moths

                  in my lungs          

                              and my throat

closes and I can’t

 breathe

                      nightmares 

of my voice   

cracking

me open                  everything 

I am 

          trying     to be  

scattered

into the fluttering

dark 

Jennifer L Freed lives in Massachusetts. Recent work appears/is forthcoming in journals including Atlanta Review, Atticus Review, Rust + Moth, The Worcester Review, and Zone 3, as well as in various anthologies, and in her chapbook, These Hands Still Holding (finalist for the 2013 New Women's Voices prize). A five-time pushcart nominee, she has been a finalist or winner of various awards, most recently the 2020 Samuel Washington Allen Prize. She has recently completed a full-length manuscript. Please visit jfreed.weebly.com