the sea breaks around my feet before moving out again like an inhaled breath. above the water, a mass of starlings twist and collapse in on themselves before bursting out in an explosion of tiny bones. I watch the birds beyond the iron carrion and by now the water is below my knees. I look down and wonder if any amount of salt could drown the monsters in my blood

Murmuration is a year’s worth of emotions, anxious thoughts and panic attacks, each one a beating wing in the mind of the author. This book is an attempt to create something beautiful from this chaos; to make sense of the things we dare not breathe to life.

Focusing on loss, heartbreak, mental health, and the impact of isolation on a tired mind, these poems are the starlings that gather above the water. These pages are the hope that we can learn to heal; that the future can survive the past.