Poetry & Art

What you will never see

by TAK Erzinger • October 17, 2023

I float like I did in your belly

I bob gently catch each coming wave

from the shore the tide breaks

like my voice on the phone

you’re an ocean apart from me

days lost years past

yesterday I almost drown

I felt you in my stomach

still attached to your umbilical cord.

Today I just float

as if you are holding me up

if you call now

I’ll dive for the phone

When you hear my voice you’ll talk

I’ll still be out here on the lake

I’ve lost the hope I held out for you

It’ll never happen

I will keep drifting

I’ll spill a few words in the wake

and I’ll hang on to what’s washed ashore

something minor to remember it all by.

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by Tania Erzinger

TAK Erzinger is an American/Swiss poet and artist with a Colombian background.
Her poetry has been featured by journals at Indiana University, Cornell University, McMaster University, the University of Baltimore and more. Erzinger’s poetry collection “At the Foot of the Mountain,” (Floricanto Press 2021), won the University of Indianapolis, Etchings Press Whirling Prize for 2021 for best nature poetry book and was a finalist at The International Book Awards 2022. It was also a finalist at the Willow Run Book Awards and Eyelands Book Awards. Her poetry collection “Tourist” (Sea Crow Press 2023) was released in April. Erzinger has been awarded a spot by the Art Centre Padula, Artist in Residency Programme summer 2023.

She lives on the foothills of the Alps in Switzerland with her husband and two cats.

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