There’s nothing better than the best holiday dish,
and nothing worse than the best dish prepared badly.
Our matriarch was never much for traditions,
more one for meeting everybody’s shifting needs.
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.
sketch phase
you are everything i’ve never known
and i’ve never been
one for asking questions
Extra
Oh, she’s a lot,
though she’s not too much.
toxicant
screw you and i hate you, and claws that i retract midair,
profiles you use to psychoanalyze, your gaze and how
Gas Lit
To the canary trapped inside a cave,
the puzzle is the cage-
Ideal
Humidity fills the dark,
takes the baton and keeps me warm
while the sun sits the bench.
I run secret plays with the moon
Light Up
I’ve got cares as tainted as these muddy banks,
but you sift the tales I weave
through a sieve that filters out the rest and marvels at
Jolt
I’m a live wire. I’ve got points
that I make, so maybe
my words are claws that
dig in as my mind digs deeper.
Coming
Me and my synthesized psyche,
slowly split, slowly reconverged,
so quick to ensure the safe
connection that we need to survive,
Captioning the Photo
I’ve got all the things I’m supposed to say-
just buried beneath
Alphabet Ravine 