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​Second Story
by Halee Kirkwood

​The first lesbians I ever met
               lived above us in the duplex
where we failed to escape our father
               that midas, how everything
he touched turned to crack & his fingers a fuse
               & I never saw them but once
playing with a dog happy
               not to run or chase or hunt
my street all shadow, heart a firecracker.
               She asked if I wanted
to feed the dog a treat
               & I couldn’t say the breed
or size, happy enough
               to pet a dog at all
& hear someone say
               that I was a good girl
feeling not so good
               the year Michael Jackson         
sat in trial & everyone said
               it’s obvious he’s gay
gay meaning guilty
               me a guilty girl
talking to strangers
               and petting strange dogs
then time was a breath kicked
               out of my belly and I
became myself
               a lesbian living
in the second story of a duplex
               this second story without a garden or a dog
just a staircase to sweep
               on the sunny weekends, plants to water,
soup to brew,  
               ​someone to love and recycling to sort.

Picture
Halee Kirkwood is a descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, a MFA candidate at Hamline University, and a mentor for the Minnesota Prison Writing Project. Kirkwood has poetry published or forthcoming in Pinwheel Journal, Grimoire Magazine, Cream City Review, and others. Kirkwood was selected as a 2019 Teaching Fellow for the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writing Conference at Arizona State University. 

Read more...
Winter 2019
"Fugue For Rabbits When The Tundra Turns Pink" by Halee Kirkwood

ISSN 2157-8079
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