Jeri Frederickson

W O R D S • I D E A S : J E R I F R E D E R I C K S O N

A Letter for the Pseudonyms at My Job After Bruce Mackinnon’s Lady Justice

you beautiful quiet torn shells pearls and dinosaurs you pulsing current surprise strength, undulating serenity you silent chasm below the unexplored depths

you root volcano pushing bubbles to the diver’s cliff you feed the future fuming in brine of moons never sounded you razor of color poison anchors coins teeth and hats

you deep sleep of the suctioning tendrils you beautiful avalanches birthing rock, you too spin fast back towards the center

you too push against the plastic colonies you are beyond our imaginative tagging. I watch you rise from the endangered list and reclaim your name.

Jeri calls Chicago home with her two cats and many plants. She swims in literary, visual, and performing arts as an expression of survival and a channel to nurture love and access beauty while questioning the experiences that hold people together. She graduated from Antioch University Los Angeles with an MFA in Writing. Her chapbook You Are Not Lost is forthcoming in October 2021 from Finishing Line Press. Jeri has been published in print and online in Vine Leaves, Thank you for Swallowing, Awakened Voices, Silver Birch Press, and Thimble Literary Magazine. Instagram: @bshl _ furmonsters and @jfredcreates Twitter @Jeri _ fred.