A.B. Persona Poem–A Golden Shovel After Patricia Smith’s Always In The Head
I like sharing this earth with you.
I like how, on a granular level, we are just
two occurrences made of the same things as milkshakes and molten lava. You take
the best pictures of me. No, I don’t look particularly pretty, but I’m squarely in
the moment with you. I often wonder about the day wherein the
archive will spill my secrets. Some young writer might see the word
madly written across each of my journals and could just as easily unearth you.
I wonder what I could leave behind that might make someone know,
or not know, how I spiraled—flitting about
your apartment like a bat, bloodshot and frantic, looking for somebody
just like you. Somebody who could make it all worth it, the living and the dying.
Kelsey L. Smoot (They/Them/He/Him) is a full-time PhD student in the interdisciplinary social sciences and humanities. Proudly, they are the author of two chapbooks: we was bois together with CLASH! (An Imprint of Mouthfeel Press), and Muse with Another New Calligraphy. More of their writing lives at www.queerinsomniac.me