Rise – Rita Sotolongo
Lightning ignites
before sunrise.
The smell of burning coal
abuzz of phoenix feathers,
nothing to silence the screams
of blazing ballerinas.
Flight will not save her,
you say.
In bed she lies–
the light
pries open her eyes.
Rita Sotolongo is a poet with publications in Black Fox Literary Magazine and Petite Hound Press, and has been nominated by the latter for a Pushcart Prize. She has a short story published in the 2017 Florida Writer’s Association Annual Collection and works by day as a copywriter and blogger.