countertop sweetie

By Josephine Raye Kelly

lost on my way to sophomore health class
we met in forts under piled rocks 
embraced in the bird’s spittle nest 

i accepted your mug of goldilocks soup 
it tasted nothing like i remembered
lips stung from your salted pick-up lines 

you drowned my hair clippings in wet cappuccinos
fresh foam softening my carnivorous tendency
light brown roots sprouting towards platinum 

your worn-down flannel poked 
full moon newspapers into my eyes 
shadow puppets floating away 

your thumb lingered an extra penny 
the density of my thighs 
on a crowded countertop 

we danced in small spaces for three years
and each night i set my altar 
for morning worship among stacks of apartments 

sifted bags of flour 
weeping behind refrigerators 
i never found the receipt 

simple baseline reverberating 
written behind your left kneecap 
delicate song i never tasted

Josephine Raye Kelly is a writer, editor, and multidisciplinary artist smitten by the redwoods. They hold a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in community mental health from Cal State East Bay and studied literature with a focus in queer feminist theory at UC Santa Cruz. Their poetry has been published by The Spotlong Review, Chinquapin Literary Magazine, Fifth Wheel Press, and elsewhere. During the summer of 2022 Josephine co-founded Ouch!, a queer art collective based in the San Francisco Bay Area.