Poetry by Christina Brown

             ​versageek CC




Tell me again about that one time you almost became everything you’ve ever wanted to be. 

Tell me about the self doubt your father planted in you when you were a child that you keep watering, even now. About the ex girlfriend you wanted a forever with even though she never believed in any of your dreams. Tell me about your dreams. The ones where staircases fold into cars without steering wheels or emergency brakes. Tell me about the ones where I meet your mother and she loves me. Tell me about the ones where you come home from work and I am here, barefoot and ready for you. Tell me about all your favorite movies, the ones with sad boys who realize they’ve been in love with the wrong girl all this time. Tell me how afraid you are that you’ve been in love with the wrong girl all this time. Tell me about what the future could have been like if you’d become a teacher or an artist instead of whatever it is you do now. You could have been something, I know. Tell me again about the first time you saw fireflies in Baltimore, and were disappointed by how dim and fleeting their lights were. Tell me again about the first time you held my hand in Los Angeles and thought my city wasn’t as shiny as it looks in the movies. Tell me again about how everything you thought you wanted tasted better when you drank it from someone else’s mouth.

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Christina Brown is a poet and educator living in Long Beach, CA. She is the managing editor at Pear Shaped Press and cohost of The Bi Pod: A Queer Podcast. In her free time, you’ll find her writing pop culture think pieces no one asked for, experiencing deep, short-lived obsessions, and trying not to kill her houseplants. Her first poetry collection, Girl Teeth, published by innateDIVINITYpress, is available now.