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POETRY / The Spoils of Summertime / Khalypso / Writer of the Month

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i can’t say much about the flowers,
only that they’d shriveled to tombs by the day

my heart was broken for a good              second
                                                                       time        

the lime-colored foliage
starved & i wrote God so many apology letters
—futile bargains, incomplete proposals, please

Lord               bring back the wind
            love me enough
        to let me breathe
      without coughing up ash

i can’t open my eyes without the sun 
slicing them into bloodless         massacres

& listen          God        all I’m asking for 
is a little forgiveness     some 
mercy for    claiming    my 
father’s habits;    his reckless   need 
to get high
                           & forget he lives

i haven’t been touched since 
the cold came & the last time i was kissed
with any honesty, the crops on every lawn
& meadow were still tossing their pleasures
into the air & 
                                  as of yesterday,
                                  i drove by the same fields
                                  & all i could see for miles was               dirt.


Khalypso is a Sacramento-based actor and poet. They are fat, black, neurodivergent, queer, and an agender badass. Their work can be found in Cosmonauts Avenue, Rigorous Journal, , and Shade Journal, as well as a few others. Their chapbook manuscript, THE HOTTENTOT LIGHTS THE GAS HERSELF, was a runner up for the 2018 Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize. They are the 2019 Sacramento Youth Poet Laureate and you can find them on Twitter at KhalypsoThePoet.