​Easter

Hope is a thing as it is        
 
            to begin again as if
            the light did not still
            have cracks in its shell
 
            to begin again as if
            bloody knees were a
            prerequisite to riding a bicycle
 
            to begin again as if
            hope were dream in a powder blue easter suit
            misery loves authority
 
            to begin again as if
            there were not a dead lamb            on our easter table
            my father eating the eyes
 
            to begin again
            calcite & agate against breastbone
            rose quartz my crown
 
gallop
 
~          faster              ~
 
           
            to begin again
            the sidewalk is alligators
            the spoon shoved in my mouth
           
            to begin again
            a new life for the lichens
            amalgamating          keeping the peace
           
            to begin again
            smoothing over outcrops & the rough hard shapes
            instead of absorbing them into a skin 

March / April  2023

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Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a cis queer human, a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. She is the author of the full-length poetry collections field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & gutter rainbows (forthcoming from Arteidolia Press, 2023), as well as eleven chapbooks including trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & sunflower spell (poems-for-all, 2022). Her poems & prose have been widely published in various journals including Paperbag, La Vague, & Entropy, & nominated for the Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net. Born & raised in Brooklyn, Melissa created, developed, and co-curates The SFSU Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange with Elise Ficarra. She now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, and serves as the Poet Laureate of Ukiah.

Art: Aiyana Masla. Rain Days.​ Watercolor and pencil