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after the snow, before the angel

Makenna Dykstra

a billboard on the highway               reads everything

you can                    imagine          is real

an affirmation               that reality          makes itself

in perception         and that    falling                  in love is

vertigo of the soul        i’ve noticed         that all aliens

are humanoid                        in not so many         words

skeletal                wafting       breaths      a soul disguised

under weathered topography   as if the color           green

ever        left            room for               desire      or the universe

has so little              possibilities          as to               leave

all life         in prototypical      form                   but we’re live

anyway        in the                 birthplace        of capital letters

and severed        heads                        or faulty   parking brakes

teach                                         me            something

about         hubris the sound    a deer makes

when it   doesn’t  realize                    it’s lit up

by midnight                   it crossed    the street                 it’s alive

the          bloodless pavement     otherwise                  missing

in motion    unscathed                               to watch           something

become miraculous   is a             practice in                    outwaiting

god       i imagine                 it’s real               it’s iron

bending            it’s grasses grasses           and cow

paddies   and         lopsided   eyes                looking

when tipped       sideways            water fills      all

hollowed      out pockets               loves the rough

draft      and claims a dried                  up wash          even

in winter        carry the flow          hold the river    two

cupped hands            imagining an ocean    a  flood

About the Author

Makenna Dykstra (she/her) is finishing her M.A. in English Literature at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. She loves pennies, purple skies, pink ice cream, and bagels. She can sometimes be found on Twitter @makdykstra.

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