Frog

By Marina Ramil

I found a frog’s corpse in my room today
and it reminded me
I have a grandmother
who is frightened by frogs
and the frog has a grandmother
who is frightened by people
who once were little girls
going to camps in the woods
where they cling to each other
in tiled shower stall corners
hiding from the frogs
because they never learned
to catch them in their hands
because they were little girls
with wide eyes and held tongues
and still they had that taken
in a sacred plot to be smart and good
in exchange for hot chocolate
even though it’ll never snow
but, in retrospect
(see, I know how to use it now),
it might just have been a leaf.

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Marina Ramil is a heretofore unpublished lifelong reader and writer. They and their writing very much live in South Florida (for now) with kid sisters, alligators, and strangler figs. They can be found on Twitter and Instagram @thesuncomingout.