i have skunk river
Mary had Blackwater. i have Skunk
River: swimming upstream in august; spook
owls in october; all the farmers yearning arriving
late and wet in november; and i have
december too—this
freezing rain like the world slicking herself up
for the long dark. i love this forest. but i have not always
wanted to be here. regardless—she takes
my chin
in her hand, turns my gaze from spinning day,
towards Skunk, where the top is deciding to harden,
and beneath, even this far north, the water still goes
south.
THE PITS
i return to the mountains and somehow miss the plains.
beneath a beauty that strangles breath-in-lung,
i wetdream about the place we call The Pits, a midwest watering
hole, a short beach that’s never seen a tourist, cricket choral
in the corn field just beyond the sand. there, water drips
green onto the car seat. there,
it is never quiet.
but there is so much silence to be gathered.
missing something changes it. i stretch
so wide to fit the shape of love. i don’t want to stretch
anymore. across these flat lands. or into the shape of someone
else. i want to doggy
paddle, back and forth between the buoys,
at the edge of the dropoff, where the water crisps, wants.
back. forth. when my lungs ache, sigh,
i want to slow.
celebrity L chart
it’s a well-kept secret that every lesbian knows every lesbian.
we have a roster like cartography, a knowing like water
trickling, down, always down.
there’s a secret network singing like fungi beneath the fields.
girl sex, the fourth sister rounding out the corn, beans, squash.
it’s the life in the roots of this place.
have you kissed a girl like a girl kisses a girl? hands in hair,
knowledge like currency, limbs tugging body towards loam,
getting down, getting dirty—
then, you, too, belong in this quilt, these natural fibers
linking me to you.
Tara Labovich (they/them, MFA) is a writer and lecturer of English and Creative Writing in Iowa. Their multi-genre creative work explores questions of queerness, survivorship, and multicultural upbringing. Their writing is nominated for Best of the Net, and can be found in journals such as Salt Hill and the Citron Review.
