Nothing Could Kill You

Shyla Shehan

though I tried. all those words just gone. do they make paper 

out of maple trees. soft wood, no good for climbing. I think 

to take the flame and burn the tree. how mad with my lustless life 

must I have been. was the tree out my window maple or oak, 

the only one who cared to know. who asked about the As and Bs 

and Cs instead of he, who clearly loved the other girls more. why

not me. I wonder about the colorless nature of faith. a halo 

of flame wrapping a stack of dusty brown logs. a ritual wrong.

one day I was on a dry bridge, white light filtered through pines 

and bounced off the water below. I fell in and drowned. 

one day I was standing on a street corner, tip-toes on the edge 

of concrete curb and fell head first into traffic. 

one day between two other days. I don’t remember. I couldn’t say

what fire was started there, and how.

Shyla Shehan is an analytical Virgo who was raised in Iowa and has spent the majority of her life in the midwest. She currently lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and children and spends most days tending to a healthy household and working as an engineer for a Healthcare IT company. She will earn an MFA in Writing from the University of Nebraska in 2020 and is the Managing Editor for an online literary journal, thegoodlifereview.com. Shyla is a mom to two amazing humans and three wily cats. She enjoys gardening, road trips, and hunting for the perfect cheeseburger. More about Shyla can be found at shylashehan.com.