Aidan Forster
Mimesis
All my Junes passed
like blown milkweed & still
I was unloved The doctor
pressed my cock
said does it hurt
& all the things
I had done swirled
in my throat O
what a storm I was
Sucking rust off coins
because there was no milk
in the house kicking
at the earth until something
kicked back wiping
my body clean of itself
trying & trying
to be the big dumb sea
O berries smashed to my lips
O head of wheat O want
star-ugly & so bright―
to be anything other than―
O night fallen like grandfather
from the roof
& all the women rushing―
O to be the boy in bell-bottoms
heart water-boarded
never the orchid in his mother’s vase.
Aidan Forster is a junior in high school. He studies creative writing at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. His work has been honored by the Poetry Society of America, Princeton University, the National YoungArts Foundation, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, among others. He has work in or forthcoming from The Adroit Journal, BOAAT, Indiana Review, Pleiades, and Verse, among others.
Return to May 2017 Edition
All my Junes passed
like blown milkweed & still
I was unloved The doctor
pressed my cock
said does it hurt
& all the things
I had done swirled
in my throat O
what a storm I was
Sucking rust off coins
because there was no milk
in the house kicking
at the earth until something
kicked back wiping
my body clean of itself
trying & trying
to be the big dumb sea
O berries smashed to my lips
O head of wheat O want
star-ugly & so bright―
to be anything other than―
O night fallen like grandfather
from the roof
& all the women rushing―
O to be the boy in bell-bottoms
heart water-boarded
never the orchid in his mother’s vase.
Aidan Forster is a junior in high school. He studies creative writing at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. His work has been honored by the Poetry Society of America, Princeton University, the National YoungArts Foundation, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, among others. He has work in or forthcoming from The Adroit Journal, BOAAT, Indiana Review, Pleiades, and Verse, among others.
Return to May 2017 Edition
