i know what you’re expecting, but this won’t be pretty, over there: in a field,
beneath the dry orange swaying blades, is the body of a boy, let’s say he’s 13,
say he’s 26, it doesn’t matter, he is lying face down much like a chalk outline
without a blacktop to hold its borders, his arms are splayed out like an angel
who belly flopped down from the clouds, and you might be wondering how
he got there, but it doesn’t matter, look again: notice the cotton shirt
in an autumn plaid, the blue denim from his waist to the top of his weed
stained sneakers, the downturned hand with the index finger extended
outward in accusation, and here is where you wager on classification:
fifty bucks says foul play, 100 says suicide, but it doesn’t matter,
see the dark red stain on his back, marring the crisp fibers of his shirt,
you may wonder how it got there, but it doesn’t matter, what matters
is he was a boy, he was loved, and the rest we must full in ourselves,
but let’s say someone out there is looking out a window, waiting for him
to round a corner, and we know already what they will wait long
to discover, their arms wrapped around themselves in an embrace,
the way the earth has opened her chest, cleared a space for him,
between the roots and the worms, and hugs him into her fertile soil.

Seth Leeper is a queer poet. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Sycamore Review, River Styx, The Journal, Salamander, EcoTheo Review, and The Account. He teaches drop in and virtual workshops for Brooklyn Poets. He holds an M.A. in Special Education from Pace University and B.A. in Creative Writing and Fashion Journalism from San Francisco State University. He lives and teaches in Brooklyn, NY.

Jennifer Packer received her BFA from the Tyler School of Art in 2007 and her MFA from Yale University in 2012. She was a 2012-2013 Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem and a Visual Arts Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, from 2014- 2016. Her work was most recently featured in two major solo exhibitions: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing, a 10-year survey at the Serpentine Galleries in London and Whitney Museum of American Art, and Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep at LA MOCA. Her first solo institutional exhibition, Tenderheaded, was shown at the Renaissance Society in Chicago in 2017 and at the Rose Museum at Brandeis University. Her work was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and P.5 - Prospect New Orleans (2021).