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I WILL NEVER WRITE ENOUGH POEMS FOR MY EX-BOYFRIEND TO LOVE ME.

Joshua Zeitler

I will never catch the moon’s reflection

in the Pine River. Never skinny-dip


in an oil spill, skin slick as a ripe cherry,

nor flush the blood-thick marrow


from my bones. I will never nickname all

the stars and call them home for dinner.


Never clip my toenails in the dark.

Never pound


the high striker, however harshly

the barker pleads. I will never read


the books I’ve bought, though I will stamp

each one with my name, so the next owner must face


how I wanted what I held.

I will never run out 


of ink, never think of every highway

exit with the tenderness


it’s earned. Mea culpa.

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.


I’ll never write another poem

whose last lines cannot shelter us.


Joshua Zeitler is a queer, nonbinary writer based in rural Michigan. They received their MFA from Alma College, and their work has been published or is forthcoming in The Account, Pithead Chapel, HAD, The Q&A Queerzine, and elsewhere.

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