Giving heed to the peripatetic
She’s sold all her stuff again
Soothing her pistol with a warm hand
She smacks her lips and fights with smiling eyes

His voice susurrates through all that she is
Leaving trails of declivities on her skin
It is the cause of the separation
Of flesh from bone
Of cinder from ash
Of thought from motion

Riding shotgun to sentience
She allows each trenchant lyric
a protean adventure
Although her form is slight and
her wings are in storage

Ominous clouds shaped like angels
Swallow her exhaust
She carries us too
She carries us too

Melissa Eleftherion is a cis queer human, a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. 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 in journals & anthologies including La Vague, Paperbag, & Entropy, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net. Born & raised in Brooklyn, Melissa founded and co-curates the SFSU 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.