MELISSA ELEFTHERION CARR

from Pastime

Silence

is a girl

shaped

a grunt

a groan a

jolt of

blues

The dense

stretches

the wisdom of stone

[Erasure poem. Source text: Salter, James. A Sport and a Pastime, pg. 10. North Point Press, 1985]

Suture 8,9

The

anger

mirror

that arched gracefully overhead

bloomed

an

underbelly of

concrete

I

prepare a

meal of

gesture s

[Erasure poem. Source text: Andrews, V.C. Petals on the Wind, pg. 8-9. Pocket Books, 1990]

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a cis queer human, a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills College, and San Jose State University. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection, field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & eleven chapbooks from various presses including trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & sunflower spell (poems-for-all, 2022). Her work has been widely published & featured in venues like Quarter after Eight, Paperbag, & Entropy, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net. Melissa 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. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.