Some wounds never close. I only mentioned his necktie in passing, then watched him whip it off and drape it around what was nearest to hand, saying to the lamp post, Monsieur, your taste is atrocious. Already glorying in his strangeness I didn’t know whether to laugh, remain silent, or run away. I call back through the years because so much been lost to silence. Because the place no longer survives as what it was when I loved it. This deep need for what is gone. I keep seeing it hanging green against gold on the lamp post where I can almost touch it.
Laura Ann Reed, a San Francisco Bay Area native, taught modern dance and ballet at the University of California, Berkeley before working as Leadership Development Trainer at the San Francisco headquarters of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies in the United States, Canada and Britain. She is the author of the chapbook, Shadows Thrown (Sungold Editions, 2023). Laura and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest.
12/19 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Kristen Renee Miller / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
12/19 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Kristen Renee Miller + Arsimmer McCoy / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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