Swim Press publishes emerging writers however some submissions land in our inbox which are not eligible to be published in our journal, therefore we showcase them on our blog.
For issue 11 decay, Emily discusses decay through changes to land and environment, the seasons and renewal.
Just an old patch of discarded land
Autumn’s soft grey mists swirl like ghosts
drifting with the density of morning
finding little to hold onto
in my unremarkable scrubland
panned and mined, now abandoned.
The river that slices through me travels
at the speed of a breaking heart,
too swift to drop silt for now,
the gravity of absence feels as smooth
as a pebble polished by my lost ambitions.
In the archaeology of dreams
there are many strata laid by my lifetime:
the bottom layer, the earliest, vague,
as nighttime visions come, like wolves
wearing childhood faces;
higher, a world of learning unwinds,
loses its shape and relevance,
becomes ashes of natural philosophies
in a library of burnt offerings.
And now, in this autumn stage
when all greenery turns greyer
with the sound of colours bleeding
I feel winter coming,
its cold wind soughs and keens,
but that time is not here yet.
by Emily Tee (@emteepoetry Instagram)
The End of May
If Spring brings renewal then May is its end.
Tulips, so bright and cheerful, become shrivelled
and apple blossom has already fallen from the tree.
Purple rosemary, reviver of memories, wilts.
The bees that guarded it so jealously have gone.
Hawthorns puts on such a show, too, until storms
whipped through with barging thunder but no rain.
This year we, also, wilt under too much sunlight,
The too-dry Spring is now a regular happening:
grass is already summer brown, the ground baked.
Crops, drowned other years, wither as seedlings emerge.
Only the birds seem happy, as much as we can tell,
by songs at dawn and twilight, the piles of snail shells.
May’s end, Spring’s rot, brings in a new, harder Summer.
by Emily Tee (@emteepoetry Instagram)
Pre-orders for issue 11 decay open Sunday 22nd November 2026. Keep an eye on our storefront.