_______________________________________ Zayne Turner grew up in the rural High Desert of Oregon. She is the author of the chapbook Memory of My Mouth, available from dancing girl press. She has received grants and fellowships for literary & visual arts from the Arteles Creative Center in Finland, Oregon Arts Commission, Vermont Studio Center and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. She also sometimes makes things on Storify.
Jonterri Gadson
wig confessional/ the bedroom Winter 1996 Bedtime (I says my name, hoping he will call it out) it is just me (touch me like that velvet zodiac woman) covered in collapsible silence (like the gal I once was) until dawn (singing in church) she clings to me (praying for honor) like moisture in the desert (satin red) on her seed coat. ( even vestiges of clouds hold rain) Then she replaces me (but you gotta pull it from the sky) every time the UPS man arrives (sing it, whistle with your lips, dance) or when down Patton Ave to catch night. (lift up the tawny clouds, find a rhythm) She stuffs me in the back of boxes (push them back) I gasp and rebuff (use your hands) any compliments— I thought (not beyond that) about her hiding swollen pockets (remain there in the quiet) of gray that envelope her (there [...]