Like this April, limping into May. You see me fallow, as though fixed rigid in the opposite season— leaves in decay, every blossom withered, chill descending deeper and deeper into the stiff ground. You see me un-inked. You see me empty-handed, fingers slack even though tools strew the table. Normally, April’s spring-fed rivulets pull richness […]
Annie Stenzel
Annie Stenzel (she/her) is a lesbian poet who was born in Illinois, but did not stay put. Her second full-length collection, Don’t misplace the moon, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in July, 2024. Her earlier book was The First Home Air After Absence (Big Table Publishing, 2017). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in print and online journals in the U.S. and the U.K., including Atlas and Alice, Chestnut Review, Galway Review, Kestrel, Night Heron Barks, On the Seawall, Rust + Moth, Saranac Review, SoFloPoJo, SWWIM, The Lake, and UCity Review. A poetry editor for the online journals Right Hand Pointing and West Trestle Review, she lives on unceded Ohlone land within walking distance of the San Francisco Bay, and pays a voluntary monthly land tax to help restore Indigenous life.
Scarlet gerbera
No leaf, no fern for company nothing but the bright of this red stands up to a dim that would engulf me. Moving stands third on a list of life-stressors, right after a loved one’s death, and divorce. Aren’t I too old for this? I’m quite as averse to displacement as I am […]