after Evie Shockley
self portrait with steak marinating overnight, with burnt orange,
with warm caress of sunlight through window, with
chlorine spilling in air, with hurricane in the mountains
and flooding in my city. self portrait with too much
garlic powder in the black beans, with another year of masking,
with raspberry jam, with collecting chestnuts to roll
in the palm. self portrait with stained wood, with weed, with
words, with wishing, with wednesday. self portrait with poets,
with full moon in aries, with hospital stays, with jazz,
with stubborn. self portrait with a warming planet, with the bombs
still dropping, with propaganda machine. self portrait with election year,
with a system working as designed, with dehydration. self portrait with
opalescent, with connection, with laps around the track. self portrait
with lemon cheek, with raw oyster, with flaky salt. self portrait with
golden shovels, with longing, with burst blood vessels, with quenched
thirst. self portrait with whiplash weekend, with nihilism,
with shame, with fear, with hopeless. self portrait with honesty,
with dishonesty, with fibs and foibles. self portrait with rising
sea levels, with sinking islands, with ai using water
right up. self portrait with poems, with rewatching legend of korra
with a more open mind. self portrait with year of no family pictures,
with cold fingers, with magnolia leaves, with a prepositional phrase.
abeo chimeka-tisdale (they/them) is a writer from Atlanta. You can find more of their poems in Frozen Sea, Dead End Zine, Epiphany, and Bellingham Review. abeo is an alumni of Anaphora Arts, In Surreal Life, Emotional Historians, and McCormack Writing Center. Tell them the last book, poem, or song you loved. INSTA
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