TWO POEMS

The Kelpie

another year ignoring the dead horse at the bottom 

of the pond, the boy beneath me who told me, 

how his nickname is the only thing that comes 

to me, & now that I know more about myself 

& the nature of kelpies i understand why that 

afternoon drags me out to sea, why it’s years 

later & my entrails are still lapping 

in the shallows of that pond

The Loch Ness Monster

sixth grade I learn the word lesbian, 

learn from my mother that she is one, learn from my classmates 

that I am one too. I am doing a project on the Loch Ness 

Monster, my greatest addition to the scholarly works 

of Titus Elementary, I didn’t understand then 

​

more later when my mother consoles me 

in the kitchen when Ellen was pushed back 

from eight, to nine o’clock, now past my bedtime 

because she said the words, “I’m gay” on primetime TV 

​

& again when the thirteen-year-old boys tell me 

to get off our bus, dyke, but never really until 

sitting across a table from a girl with purple streaks 

in her hair wondering how to get her to look at me

Aly Pierce lives in Beverly, MA where she drinks coffee & mails you records from Deathwish Inc. Her debut collection The Visible Planets is forthcoming from Game Over Books.