Streetcorner Coda

By Karen Elizabeth Sharpe

---

A simple sky beams into the afternoon, 34-degree bank sign blinking overhead. I’m waiting for the light to change, mid-October, out on a corner, a thousand fingerprints on the silver signal walk button in front of me. At home the socks sit in separate piles. Your old record albums stacked separately. My winter coats in their own separate closet. We’ve always come together best in argument, our emotional forte, the dark ash of thrown books and shoes. It took hardly any time at all for us to learn the value of my body, its intonations. Its pitch. At the curb, transgressions mound in a thick paste of early snow. 

Crosswalk signal bleating 
walk, walk, walk 
I do what it says

---

---

Karen Elizabeth Sharpe is a poetry editor at The Worcester Review and author of Prayer Can Be Anything (Finishing Line Press, 2023). Her poems have or will soon appear in On the Seawall, The MacGuffin, SWWIM Everyday, Split Rock Review, Mom Egg Review, and Halfway Down the Stairs, among others.

---

• Join us for virtual writing workshops with SWWIM editors! 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 Bones, Stones, and Relics: Tapping into the Magic of Objects with Mary Block on November 4, and/or Mystics, Medicine, and Magic: A Yogic Journey to Poetry with Catherine Esposito Prescott on December 9. Bundle and save! Broom optional.

• 11/13 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Taylor Byas & local poet Rosa Sophia Godshall / 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.