What I want to say is
while mom is solid in
bed in a too-many-tylenol
dream state which I do
not want to say but if
I am to say if I am to think
of the night the night the
pill bottle ricocheted off
the tile then I am thinking
of sound of the sound of
the clatter on the tile of
the tile on which I shattered
a bottle of deep red nail
polish at twelve or maybe
thirteen and pressed my
knees against the hard cold
tile scrubbing the tile or it
was the same tile we put
fresh socks on to slide on
on the tile and so while
mom is in the bed in the
bed waiting for what she
is waiting for I am waiting
at the river on the bedrock
the bedrock pressing little
mountain ranges into my
little hands little because
mom keeps me waiting the
river waiting for the dam to
tell it to hold back to stop
to stop the water to restrict
to keep the water to keep it
from me what I want to say
is that I want what I want is
the water I want it to wait for me

Published September 29, 2024

Flora Field is a poet from Oregon. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University where she was a Teaching Fellow, a Chair's Fellow, and a runner-up for an Academy of American Poets Prize. Her poems can be found or are forthcoming in LARB Quarterly, The Raleigh Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere.

Levi Japhet was raised in Lima, Peru. They left the known at nineteen to dive into the United States, a land consumed by Religion, Rifles, and Chaos, chasing the flicker of artistic expression. Journeying through the Southern side, it wasn’t until they reached Tulsa, Oklahoma, that something finally took root. In that city of ruins and desolation, they found a strange kinship, a reflection, where solitude shaped their art into a mirror of inner turmoil. Their work often emerges as intricate narratives or fragmented memories, revealing a profound engagement with human experience and emotion. Japhet’s characters frequently inhabit architectural spaces—buildings, interior rooms, or narrow alleys—framing themes of loneliness, isolation, and the weight of religion. Tulsa was temporary. Japhet moved on, seeking not success but something deeper—the marrow, the substance of life, the endless unfolding of the journey. Japhet enjoys exploring the architecture of the human spirit. Is there, in the quiet corners, that the real work is done—the work of becoming. Diving into the depths of filmmaking, painting, and music with each piece they create, they continue to invite others into the textured landscapes of their inner reality and complexities of existence.