POETRY April 2, 2021

Sisters Sharing a Pillow, or, “Thank You, 117 Lomia”

I am not the best lesbian. I don’t say this
                    because of what rests between.
                                        I mean astrology is beyond me.
I’m a December baby,
                    Sagittarius. I know this.
                                        But that’s all I have.
The rising, the set.
                    The moment
                                        I went from one cell    to two?
I can’t name it.
                    My chart is incomplete. And so, we add this to
                                        my list of not-accomplishments, alongside
graduating and coming out to the kind couple
                    who run the corner store
                                        and sometimes compliment my nails.
117 Lomia, too, has compliments to give.
                    Cute socks, she says.
                                        Good job getting up
before noon.
Those jeans are out of your world.
                    She hovers in my constellation. We share it
                                        like sisters sharing a pillow
in the back seat as their father drives home
                    from grandmother’s wake.
                                        In this, my most pathetic fallacy, 117
clasps our grief between
                    our palms, as if to diamond
                                        our sad coal. This makes sense: Lomia
is the older sister here. Lomia:
                    for thousands, millions of years, lingering.
                                        Watching over.

Oh, Lomia: care for me, care.

A. Prevett is the author of the chapbook Still, No Grace (Madhouse Press, 2021). Their recent poetry has been featured in such journals as West Branch, DIAGRAM, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, and others. They are pursuing an MFA in poetry from Georgia State University, where they serve as editor-in-chief of New South. You can find more of their work on their website, http://aprevett.com .