They say a birthday should leave you wiser,
more learned, more intelligent,
Author: Alphabet Ravine
Lydia Rae Bush (she/her) is a poet exploring themes of embodiment and social-emotional development. Her work is Best of the Net nominated and can be found in publications such as Corporeal, Querencia Press, and Bleating Thing. Her chapbook Free Bleeding is out now with dogleech books.
Question
You slice me wholly through,
to my core.
I plunge the incision back at you,
and the foot-long dagger disappears
Comfortable (Submission Rejection Letter Erasure Poem)
Dear
your
Josie
Josie didn’t know me,
but I think that she was lonely
in her ignorance.
Trap
In memory, it is nobody’s fault.
The authority puts the wood burning stove out. The ashes
stir back to life.
Soft
I’ll forgive if you’ll forgive,
and I will love if you will love,
and I’ll have grace if you’ll have grace,
and I’ll be soft if—
Prof
He asked me to write him a poem.
He asked me to
reach out for rhyme and for rhythm. He asked me
to think, feel, and breathe, to be human. He said to
grab meter and put it in
structure and thrust it near
thought bubbles. He said to go
dabble with words and ideas and irony,
the girl in the dream
Pride in the girl in the dream who walked away,
screamed, It’s not worth it.
She screamed,
It’s never worth it.
I don’t know how she’d get away, if
she were trapped on every side,
Lowly
If it is my lot in life to be a worm of the earth,
then when they chip away
each piece of me,
Man-eater
Attention, attraction,
affection, attachment,
with trust in you too large to trust
myself so little,
Alphabet Ravine 