Sacred Vows
By Taylor Franson-Thiel
Inspired by Sally Keith’s “Limus Polyphemus" That there may be granite unmoveable under gulls departing everywhere. That there may be applebloom according to its own season, horseshoe crabs laying 4,000 eggs at once. How can anything predating dinosaurs also outlive everything else? Tulips are one reason I think God may be real. Growing up, I pretended to hate the color pink to get boys to like me but I think everything should be pink. I think everything should come from horseshoe crabs. Or! Tulips! When we were dating, it took my Mormon husband 9 months to tell me he loved me. Our god tells most couples to be married within 6 months. He also promised me my marriage would outlive everything else, and I need that to be true. Horseshoe crabs have 4,000 babies at once, can you believe that? It took me 6 months to know I loved him, but it’s the boy’s job to say it first so instead I traced i love you with my fingertips hundreds of times onto his forearms during church. That there may be firmament below, sky above with three celestial bodies to rule the light. The lesser, the lesser, and the greater which triggers the appleblooms of spring. We were married in May. April showers bring awkward married sex from two recent virgins. Or however the saying departs. That there may be a dumb rock on my ring finger, a good man inside me, and horseshoe crabs outside on the beach, 4,000 babies fighting their way through sand to open sea. I didn’t forget about the gulls, I just had to let them leave.
Taylor Franson-Thiel is the author of Bone Valley Hymnal (ELJ Editions 2025). She is a developmental and editorial coordinator for Poetry Daily, the Assistant Poetry Editor for phoebe, and the EIC of BRAWL. She can be found @TaylorFranson on Twitter, @taylorfthiel on Instagram, @taylorfthiel.bsky.social on BlueSky, and at taylorfranson-thiel.com.
Join us for our last virtual writing workshop of the fall with a SWWIM editor! Get in touch with your creative energy, your “bruja,” your inner witch. We’ll explore the wonder, mystery, synchronicity, and enchantment of the creative process in our writing. Sign up for Mystics, Medicine, and Magic: A Yogic Journey to Poetry with Catherine Esposito Prescott on December 9. Broom optional.
12/11 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Lesley Wheeler & local poet Haya Pomrenze / The BBar at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
Are you looking for editorial feedback? SWWIM’s editors offer commentary on 3-6 pages of poetry. Submit here!
SWWIM Every Day accepts poetry translations for publication consideration. Please see swwim.org/submit for the full guidelines.
Are you a SWWIMmer with literary news to share (publication/feature/award/book/book review)? We’d love to shout out your accomplishments in our Weekly Spotlight! Please fill out this form with your news. (No DMs on any social media platforms, please.)
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky for more updates—and visit our website to see past, present, and future readings & events.
**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.
Love the progression of this. And a well-placed exclamation mark in a poem is always a wonderful encounter.