A Love Letter Melissa Touche

nationwide.

No one talks of your crimes, twice a deserter. Coming in last at West Point, HIStory conveniently forgotten. Big American Hero, leading your family to their graves. It only took two bullets before your body was ravaged, Beautiful blonde hair, still left attached, I hope you felt every bit of pain, plus a 100x more for the pain you caused. Sincerely yours, A Merciless Savage

“Ruminating” (8”x8”, acrylic) 2020 Keegs Sturdevant

Two Girls on a Night Breeze / Madison Vaillant

Blankets bunch up around a nineteen year old’s body Rippled like velvet waves in a warm ocean, lit by string lights that glow as steadily as starlight The room is not the same, though perhaps, she can imagine resting under another ceiling Speckled with popcorn plaster, but illuminated by another soft star A flashlight burning out on its last hours, in silent supernova Smaller hands cradle soft pages Reverently stroking words and phrases that she’ll whisper during recess tomorrow It’s the same breeze

Carrying rain and car exhaust and sleeping suburbia pavement through the window Curling the damp paper corners into peaks For clumsy fingers to prick themselves on This child is far away A different state, Decades gone And the breeze has swept her up in a gentle hold Drifting over towns and dreams of childhood Empty roads and shimmering black lakes that lap at the shore The fluorescent lights of the movie theater