Small Red Worlds

Carly Miller

There are cherries scattered all over the road
on the east side of Bridge Street
and I’m thinking of you again,
how you would have stopped to gather them,
palming each one gently,
saying waste is a kind of grief.
They are bruised, split, bright against the asphalt,
small red worlds that never made it home,
and I think of how many small, sweet things
we’ve let fall between us,
how many mornings we walked past
what could have been enough.

Carly Miller is a poet and social justice worker based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a double major in Psychology and English. Her work has been published in Wingless Dreamer, Poets Choice, and Beyond Queer Words. Her poetry is rooted in natural imagery and personal narrative, often reflecting themes of queerness, motherhood, and the landscapes that shape us.