Sarah Tinkham is a writer, librarian, and gamer from San Bruno and has lived in the Bay Area her whole life. She holds a bachelor’s in creative writing from UC Santa Cruz. She is a Teen and Children’s Services Librarian and facilitates the Burlingame-Hillsborough Youth Poet Laureate program. Her major sources of inspiration for poetry are folklore, science, and pop culture.
Poems
CHLOROPHYLL AND OXIDATION
I told myself once
“There will be days
When you cannot get the word ‘burn’
Out of your head,
Just remember, then,
That you are a green
And growing thing.”
I am creaking wood now
A willow with a knotted back
Still there are green bits of me
That sway in the wind
There are some days now, too,
Where I am brittle metal
I am steam and clockwork
Clicking together and heaving exhaust
And some days still where I am
A Green Knight
Creaking wood and soft moss
Dark and cool beneath steel plate
Drawing a thumb across my gorgeted throat
Promising the world
That I can give back anything it throws at me
TO A TRAVELER
Satan is still in your swimming pool
And I am so so sorry
But yes, the call is coming from inside the house
You clutch your teacup close at parties
A talisman against the dark
Without and within
They called you a vampire
And you corrected them saying
“Alien, actually, but still a parasite.”
Do you know how vital parasites are to the ecosystem?
How many birds fuel their songs
Carried on cool morning air
With the mosquitos swept up from the damp grass?
You said you do your best work
When you get very selfish about it
But I wonder how much “you” is in you
Constantly metamorphosing, mimicking, displaying
Attracting mates, potential prey (both? The same?)
Scaring predators away with bright colors
A beautiful, strange bug of a man
Singing your song so that you might
Be seen
Be devoured
Beloved
A teacup lies on its side
On a plush lawn next to a swimming pool
A phone rings off the hook in the house
(Can you hear me? Can you hear me?)
And in the grass you hear the morning bug song
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch
Copyright © 2025 by Sarah Tinkham. Used with permission of the author.
Speak Poetry in San Mateo County 