I can leave. Leave em’ anywhere now; in storage units, 
anywhere, toss them like aluminum cans on frontage 
roads. I can throw stories off the side of my balcony 

watch them blister, squeal at their shatter. Walking away 
is cheaper than packing again and renting another truck.
Low income housing ain’t home, ain’t a clean sandbox 

where we make friends. What’s a little more broken 
glass on the ground when there’s that little girl in the 
downstairs apartment. What’s the addict sleeping in 

his car compared to her waving Barbie in the window. 
Her mother screaming so loud, so long you would put 
your ear to the floor to make sure what you thought 

you heard was what you heard. It was. You called. 
Neighbors called. They came, but didn’t go in. So 
they just left her. It wasn’t their neighborhood 

anyway. Who told us this lie in the first place, 
that we all get homes when we grow up, family 
heirlooms, that someday we’ll have rooms with 

doors so children come back home for Christmas. 
Who told us to keep washing all these sheets, keep
hanging pictures on every new wall. It’s just more 

holes we have to fill back in. This is not the house 
they promised. This is hub. Station. Myth. Depot. 
My purse, a grocery cart, my knees blown out tires. 

Just sit down. Sit with me for a spell, wait it out 
so no one gets hurt this time, so no one heads 
straight for the balcony, not this time. Wait 

with me. We are so close. My skin is almost thick 
enough, enough to turn all this history into art.

Published September 15, 2024

Monique Lanier's poetry wrestles with theodicy, the apocalypse, motherhood, gender - and, of course, the Anthropocene and Patriarchy. To lighten things up (she'd like to be invited to parties), she explores longing, elemental distance, and themes of ecstatic union with the Beloved. She recently graduated with a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and is now pursuing her MFA in poetry at Oregon State University. You can find some of her work in Cathexis, Pigeon Pages, and other places.

Keiran Brennan Hinton (b. 1992, Toronto) lives and works in Toronto and Elgin, Ontario. Across landscapes, still lifes, and domestic scenes, Brennan Hinton’s practice focuses on formal painting processes, the sustained act of observation, reflections of domestic intimacy, and the plein-air discipline. Witnessing beauty in the mundane, he paints intuitively in response to the environments that surround him, seeing beauty not as superfluous, but rather integral to the act of observation. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2014 and his MFA from Yale University in 2016. Past international solo shows of Brennan Hinton’s work include exhibitions at Charles Moffett, New York, NY (2023 and 2021); MAKI Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2022); Thomas Fuchs Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany (2021); Michael Gibson Gallery, London, Ontario (2020); and Francesco Pantaleone Gallery, Palermo, Italy (2019) among others. His paintings have been featured in institutional exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario; James Castle House, Boise, Idaho; and Katonah Museum of Art, Westchester, NY. His newest paintings, inspired by time spent in Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, NY, were presented by Charles Moffett at The Armory Show 2024.