POETRY : Self Portrait / Sydney Vogl

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as the airplane:
  i am always finding a reason to take off
  sometimes it looks like hiding
  sometimes it looks like barcelona in july 

as the quarantine order: forgive me
  for suffocating, i don’t know how else to love 

as the sailor who loves the ocean: i spend every morning
  scrubbing salt from my lips 

as the straight daughter my father wanted:
  there are endless ways to please him
  & i do all of them
  i marry the boy, make the dinner, go to bed
  cold & angry & it looks like honesty 

as the beech tree: you carve
  your name into me & i sap it to the roots 

as the peach rotting in your fridge:
  let the promise of my juice be enough
  let me die shriveled & molded
  but whole at least 

as my mother’s vegetable garden:
  i am no longer afraid of the sun i don’t remember
  what leaving looks like
  there are soft hands here holding me
  turning me
  watering me 

 

Sydney Vogl is a poet living in the Bay Area.

POETRY : During the Parade / James Cagney

POETRY : Ask About the Women in Your Family / Lauren Parker

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