Melissa Eleftherion

suture 1

the

guilt

appearing

ecstatic

makeup

trembling

your mouth

macho style

laughing

in a bra

[Remixed poem]. Source Text: Pike, Christopher. Slumber Party. pg. 83. Scholastic, 2005.

suture 13

I’m

not

your

young lady

your

charade

[Erasure poem]. Source Text: Pike, Christopher. Slumber Party. pg. 88. Scholastic, 2005.

suture 75

wait for the right woman instead of

fork or salad plate

patterns

I ate her

in fine spirits

interrogated by

the pot roast

[Erasure poem]. Source Text: Harris, Charlaine. Real Murders. pg. 75. Orion, 1990.

suture 96

every

trouble

a

courtesy we

gag the police

[Erasure poem]. Source Text: Harris, Charlaine. Real Murders. pg. 96. Orion, 1990.

suture 174

i was back

bitchy

graphs and

micro- waved egg rolls

that familiar irritating

wisp of

my father

calling me

“doll”

crisis is

confession

[Erasure poem]. Source Text: Harris, Charlaine. Real Murders. pg. 174. Orion, 1990

suture 26

our

wrath

was

intimate

memory

I stripped off everything

[Erasure poem. Source text: Andrews, V.C. Flowers in the Attic, pg. 222. Pocket Books, 1979]

Melissa Eleftherion is a cis queer human, a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. She is the author of field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & eleven chapbooks, including trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & sunflower spell (poems-for-all, 2022). Her work has been widely published in various journals including The Berkeley Poetry Review, La Vague, & On the Seawall, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net. Born & raised in Brooklyn, Melissa founded and co-curates The San Francisco State 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. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.