All the Bars Are Closing

according to The Lesbian Bar Project, there are only 21 lesbian bars left in the US

meanwhile my uterus is empty. i’m closer to god
sitting on a curb in the mission & calling my ex
more than anywhere else. i want to be a city girl
but my hair still smells like august, like a fire
cleaning out the suburbs. tell me this wasn’t
your favorite song growing up. where the girl
straddles the roof of her parent’s house & maps
her escape. take a left before the blonde boy’s house,
past the football fields & the ice cream shop, run
towards the empty desert. i didn’t know yet
i was already a ghost. ten years later i’m running
out of places to put my mouth. my stomach an aquarium
of lime peels. you must understand that feeling.
don’t you have a picture of a girl buried somewhere in your ribs?
didn’t your mother teach you better than to keep sorrow this way?
you’re supposed to walk it & burn it.

Sydney Vogl

Sydney (She/they) is the winner of the AWP Intro Journals Award. Their work has been featured in or is forthcoming in Iron Horse Review, Honey Literary, Tusculum Review, and Ghost City Review. She currently serves as a poetry editor for The San Franciscan Magazine. Their debut chapbook, CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO HELL, was released in November 2021 through Perhappened Press.

Share:

Contact Us

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

0

Start typing and press Enter to search