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PUBLISHED POETRY

find even more of my published work at the links at the bottom of this page

FatWomanUtopiaSquare.jpeg
fat woman utopia!

sweet strawberry-pickin’ 
hair-braidin’
freckles-on-the-tops-of-your-shoulders-kissin’
women 
in fits of tinkling slap-your-thighs laughter
between dandelion afternoons
and citronella dusks
paradise is some sunshine and rainbows
some musical thunderstorms
with gorgeous displays of heat and sweet, yet
no scorching gaze to burn these garden bodies
into rigid rows of hedges, stunted 
branches sharpened into defense mechanisms—
we are flesh and spirit
without spite
tracing each other’s silvered stretch marks, inquiring
the names of such sparkling rivers, admiring
delicate purple veins and dark spots
even the sun can’t help but shine on
this vast wildness flourishing
flourishing! everyone is just 
as woman or fat as suits them
and here we are as a daisy chain—
behind me her tender fingers working through my thick hair,
my cool hands squeezing another’s untangling shoulders
as their sweet lap holds the shaved head
of still another woman whispering
you are loved
you are loved, you are
loved.

​​

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Published in Space538 2021 Poetry Hotline

Image by kychan
to tell you how much i love you

​inspired by matthew and Cat Power

 

sea of love

matthew

come with me

i wanna tell you

about that

Craigslist ukulele

do you remember

(you couldn’t possibly)

the gold-leafed little white bible?

i wanna tell you

how it became a

replaced window pane

come with me

look, i used to sit on

the roof

thinking about how i want to tell you

i love you

​

Published in Sad Girl Review Spring 2021

Book no.2
Book no.1
The Fortune

Your mother was a garden fairy

and your father was a talking manatee.

You will have twenty children

and live in a Jimmy Choo.

Your first born will be a champion pumpkin eater,

Your last born will upset the balance of the universe.

 

I see you're overwhelmed by your destiny,

One day, when you're queen of the ancient Scots, you will be more confident.

You will develop a knack for feng shui.

Your partner will leave you

And come back with flowers.

 

The rivers will course with the voice of your best friend from 4th grade,

and the mountains will stand silent like your grandfather.

You will caution the winds to aspire to little to no funny business.

 

You are a witch, a heathen.

Your afterlife will be one of unfinished business.

God will smile down on you and turn away.

You will ascend to the universe and become a black hole.

Your children will see the twinkle of the north star and forget about you.

​

Published in ECU Expressions Spring 2016

​

Saudade

​scattered across continents

distance highlighted by numbers

years, eyes, words

 

people i haven't spoken to since there was hard, dry dirt under my feet

and arroz e feijão ready for lunch
 

blood is thicker than water

harder to scrub from your hands

from your memories

 

nine years forgotten

entrusted to a man nobody knew,

a man named violence.

 

i grew in that time.

my body grew, with constant reminders of the distance

echoing in my changing curves

 

but the world stayed still

 

days bled into years

and the first thing released from the slow muck

of a repressed childhood were my elbows

 

i crawled out to the other side

 

still alone

still slow

but breaking the frame

 

and now continents are closer than ever

tides pulling us together

love is slowly filling the void that fear cratered

​

​

Published in ECU Expressions Spring 2016

​

Book no.2
Book no.1

More Published Poetry

how / like you see me

haunt the dead: a biolet

three poems in a Midnight Mass Anthology

60% water

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