Poetry By Stella Gleitsman

JenavieveMarie CC




Crow 

The first ring I got was a crow’s skull from my mother

it had, 
meaning

it was, 
not old enough 
to be crumbling 

wearing it,
I waited for the day 
it stuck to me
and I was bird too
half-flighting
and precise
open to wind

red and courage
bent like a tree root
constantly 
showing my skeleton 

I wore it all the time
I liked how it jutted
I really enjoyed 
how it hurt 

as I typed
as I played mercy
and fawned 
over my day

it made me feel
very
unsoft
historied 

like I fell here straight 
from a mountain 
from a basket of cords
traded in a gray
bespoke market
where women held a baby
in their heads

it made me feel
decadent
my feet liked 
the rhythm 

if I could’ve been born anything else, 
I would’ve liked to have been born 
a collar bone
I would have liked to be 
a flat penny

there is no day that comes to me where I am not at odds 
with my blanket

my eyeliner makes me feel

octagonal, 

crow

I layer it 
against the ridge of my eye
to become more 
under-earthly 

it is justified
to be angular 

it is correct
to be jagged
to deplete rivers

only crack
only one long planet  
of edge

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Notebook, Guitar, Unicorn Key-Chain 

Please / Pleo / Cleo / Pluto / Maybe / Mercy
My rack of
Note paper
Black and pink like my hiccups
Killed in a simple move
Over a winter
That made sway
Hid me in hay

I spilt everything 
Down those rhino milks
The paper my only 
Community that day
Wafting me with sand
Prayer sand
Tomato bead
Calling me beautiful
Saying I’m sorry 

Heart / Rock / Bastion
My guitar
That buried crosses in my 
Yard. That lifted me out of 
Fucking hell. My guitar,
A sighing maybe 
A goganol might. A goblin golfing course
Running at me
Bruising me 
Like 
It makes me mighty 
It controls me
My withholding island

Princess / Horse love / Horse blood / Pillow girl
Groomed and purring
So femme and glory god
My furry woman 
I wear double tooth 
So sparkly and wretcher
Wrestler insight 
Unicorn key 
She makes me so kind
She makes me so kind 
We marry each other 




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Stella Gleitsman (she/he/they) is a poet and artist from Lower East Side, New York, currently attending Suny Purchase. Their poetry is focused on the visceral texture of language, exploring alienation in body, mind and life through new-found language architectures, exploring the radical feminist genderqueer perspective as a potent poetic politics. They hope to delve into sound poetry, poetic painting and sculpture, and printed matter.
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