Two Poems in Prosetrics

With some pre-ra(nt)mble, "A Mallard . . ." and "On the Fringe . . ."

Hey, hi, hello!

[Just skip to the header if you don’t want a ranty rant.]

I was extremely tempted to make this post just a linky wink to the one I already wrote a hot minute ago on my website, but here we are. The whole Benson LaBubuDubaibaiMusubibi x Pangram x Subwhack collab mess has left a bitter taste in my mouth when I log on this platform. Like, yes, I want to feed my own writing to an AI company to tell me whether it’s going to come off as AI or human, for the lovely fee of likely sacrificing said work to the whims of changing ToS. We love that for us (yes, in spite of my neurodivergence, I can, in fact, use sarcasm, crazy).

Anyway, while I understand the toothpaste is out and they’re attempting to shove some of it back in by not obligating people to feed their work to the machine before disabling the AI scan feature, it’s giving enshittification speedrun any %, ok? Digressing on the digression, though, a note by one of my favorite authors on here (M.A. Knight BUY. THEIR. BOOK.) convinced me f it it’s all going in the machine, so I’ll just keep dancing for y’all in the digital dead sea of it all:

Alright, enough of my rambling. As a gesture of goodwill that I’m not gonna nuke this account for now, I’ve copied and pasted the post I already wrote on my Word Press website for the lovely people I’ve met on here who don’t have the bandwidth to jump over to another platform yet:

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Two Poems in Prosetrics

I got my copy of Prosetrics’ Ukiyo issue in the mail (Link to purchase here if you’re interested in checking it out)!

I have not only one, but TWO whole poems of mine featured in this print magazine. I’m obviously jazzed whenever a publication accepts my work (we’re currently sitting at rejection 96/100 for my goal of 100 rejections in a year, whee!¹), but Prosetrics has been in my sights for a MINUTE. I am still² floating in the warm buzz of it all, so to speak.

The other fun part of getting published in this magazine is that I still hold the rights to these poems. So, to celebrate with y’all, I’m sharing both poems and a little bit of context with each piece!

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“A Mallard Splashes from the Sand”

Picture taken by me [Lee Summers]

and your yellow jacket
takes off

with a clip
of tepid breeze.

A pelican floats in the vein
feeding the bay

where a mourning dove’s
sunset nest rested

over the fire extinguisher.
They take flight. Feathers

take the hue of yucca blooms’
spires and royal terns’ beaks

mid-dive at any warm morsel
of bivalve cloud and foam.

Will you catch the tail
end of my mid-air hand?

Context: When pondering the theme, what came to me were those minute moments of living along the Chesapeake Bay. It was something else to be able to come home from work, grab lawn chairs, eat a slice of 7-11 pizza, and hold the man who’s now my husband’s hand as the sun tinted everything. I don’t know if this poem or even this description quite does how I felt justice, but I do float somewhere approaching there, if even for the time it takes to watch a royal tern plunge into the waves.

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“At the Fringe of a June Cloud Break”

Sun pries the		bivalve
storm clouds.	        Mother of

pearl iris arcs in harmony
with the chorus of glistening
bald cypress feathers, the ghost leaf
baritone of toads, the tenor
trill of tree frogs.

Sky, 
submerge 
eyes into nacre. Tune my 
ears until your depths alight
the melody a conch shell mimics.
Crystallize on the tip of my
opal nails. How I un-
cloister my voice
in the waves
of your
song.

Context: One of my favorite things about May and June here is we get these intense summer thunderstorms, followed by rainbows and colorful cloud breaks. This was my attempt at shucking open a rather simple pleasure of mine, telling the truth slant or whatever Dickinson wrote and all that. If you’re not familiar with that concept, consult with this Robert Wood Lynn prompt:

Poetry Prompt of the Week: Tell It Slant

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I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading both of my poems featured in Prosetrics’ Ukiyo issue! Let me know what you think. Feel free to share your own little joy clouds; I know I’m not the only who needs them (especially in light of the past 48 hours jfc).

I will no longer be asking for you to subscribe at the end of my posts. This is (partially) because all of my writing is here for free, anyway, whether you subscribe or follow or not. Also, fun fact, I have a wordpress now. You can get the same stuff here, but a bit sooner if you click here. If you’ve ever wanted to tip me, please consider instead doing one of the following:

1. Donating to an environmental non-profit or charity like one of the charities listed here

2. Donating to Amnesty International or NIJC or Human Rights Watch

3. Tipping and/or supporting one of my lovely friends: RM Greta, Saint Lazare, Bea, Alex J, Edward Marlo Ruiz, Walt Shuler, Ryan Stephen Thornton, pixiewithpens, and/or Nymphish!

4. Order M.A. Knight’s fabulous, sapphic werewolf horror novel, “Feverchain.”

5. Donating to the NOICE Anthology fundraiser for RAICES.

Thank you for reading my work! Since I will not charge for subscriptions until this place enforces its own ToS on the Neo Nazis they’ve permitted to monetize themselves here, please consider instead sharing this post if you liked it.

1. Lol I’ve since gotten to rejection 97/100. It was a form rejection for a pretty big contest, too, which, well, I do love a paid ego check.

2. MmmmMMmm, ‘bout that . . .