“After Dobbs”
My friend stares directly at the sun, cups his cheeks with her palm—risking blister and burn. She is the picture of bliss. Rosy cheeks stark against white lace. They sway as one, slice through the cake with giddy imprecision. Her corset cinched so tight she kneels by the bleach bowl in prayer. She folds over, like a hanger’s hook. Bile stains the air.Alixa Brobbey is a writer and law student currently based in Utah.(Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash)
“Imposter”
You carry yourself like a leftover meal, your back an arched rib bone. You think yourself alone in doubts, alone in the way your arteries stretch your yearnings towards home. Eyes searching during whispered prayers, in this you are too alone. Bread caught in a burning throat, water salted with desire. The fluttering dove within your chest yearns to break free from its muddy cage. Not alone, in this homesickness, we all yearn for the navy atmosphere, the silence in gravity’s tides. Our stardust bones beckon us home to Kolob’s neighborhood, to follow the dove to the skies. Sometimes there […]
“Fast Sunday”
In the shadow of the hospital, he cradles a box of Triscuits to his chest — tenderly, like a more delicate load. I joke about the familiar gesture, then when my empty arms return home, I find I am craving pears: sweet weight I’ve been allergic to for years. I wash myself of the scent of him, of the garlic squares, of the hospital’s glare. Only the imagined fruit lingers. Only the loneliness of a forgotten taste, the scent of oily soft skin, a weight in the middle of it all I am not woman enough to bear. Alixa Brobbey […]
“Bittersweet”
They say that heaven is a pure white fruit, And I must pass through darkness to get there. Some days what they mean is that I must pass through life in this dark body before inheriting one of theirs. I think I tasted heaven once, but it wasn’t entirely sweet. First, I walked a lonely path, on my head a crown of curly thorns. Someone handed me a map to guide me there, But the iron burned me and called me cursed. When I dreamt of arriving at the pearly gate, I was reminded that It had been locked for […]
