top of page

2022 Issue  >  Poetry  >  Your Lips

Red Haired Woman 3.jpg
Artwork by
Jesse Lee Kercheval

Your Lips

Taylor Arcand

again I am thinking of your lips            and only your lips

remember the mouth of a girl who drank gasoline      from a pure bath

your nectar            smelled of home and kept her at peace as it

bubbled inside her before                   erupting

from the very lips that you        worshipped        for nights

she chose to believe that the nectar            with its toxicity upon

your lips          was nothing more than a rarity from

the contaminated buds of your tongue             it is not the love

but the       venom       behind your lips that she remembers

Taylor Arcand is an undergraduate student at UW-Platteville with a major in English - Professional Writing and a minor in Creative Writing.

 Jesse Lee Kercheval is a writer, translator, and graphic artist. Her recent books include the short story collection Underground Women and  La crisis es el cuerpo, a bilingual edition of her poetry, translated by Ezequiel Zaidenwerg, published in Argentina by Editorial Bajo la luna. Her recen graphic narratives, comics and art have appeared in Waxwing, The Quarantine Public Library, On the Seawall, Sweet Lit, and New Letters.

bottom of page