POETRY

Childhood Friend

 after Philippe Soupault 

Flying as a if a dervish

winking her way up the moon

she calls after you

to say that breakfast was delicious

And your eyes drop like lampshades

surrendering to the nighthood of yourself

When she returns with grief

dripping from her hair

she will smile at you like a morning glory

gilded in our museum of iniquities

much like kisses from the stars

Are you

praying

or are you constructing

a tomb underneath your floorboards

for the uncooked rice

and fear

Give up your dreams of

orange groves

She is somersaulting across

the Sahara trying to tell you

She will not lie down in it 

Tessa Bryant (she/her/hers) is a queer educator, performing artist, and writer from Nashville, Tennessee. Tessa holds an MFA in Poetry from Eastern Washington University’s Inland Northwest Center for Writers and has taught at Eastern Washington University and Lipscomb University. Tessa has been previously published in Fugue Literary Journal and has been a reader for Willow Springs Magazine and Willow Springs Books. She has performed and created work in many theatre companies throughout Middle Tennessee, including the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Kindling Arts Festival, and Nashville Repertory Theatre. Find her on Twitter and Instagram: @tessanbryant