Fall 2017 final digital.pdf


Birth Giver
Piper Rowley

late in the evening. 

The abruptness of  her fragility 
has winded me. 

eventually, 
she will disappear. 

I remember her blank white skin 

only from pictures. 
Her skin is leather brown now, 
cluttered with ink 
as incomprehensible 
as her thoughts. 

graying severely at her temples. 

hard drinking, 

childhood trauma, 
adult mistakes 
gray. 

Her body is a collection of  unpredictable slopes 
and swells. 
Celluloid divots and aged stretchmarks. 

and a jutting scar above her navel, 
evidence of  poor health. 

Best of  Poetry



Piper Rowley

carried by pink soles, 
cracked and calloused. 

lined with deep regrets and troubles. 

a pale and unforgiving landscape, 
wintry and vicious when provoked. 

scatterbrained advice, 
and subjective, inconsistent realities. 

a source of  shame, 
a place of  guilt, 
the origin of  homesickness. 

The possibility of  unhappiness 
heirloom of  imbalanced chemicals 
dormant in my veins 
I was born trying to escape.

Her angry missed calls collect