Annmarie O'Connell
Dear Waylon
It makes sense to let you wear your little gym shoes through the living room now. Before you're
sprung forth into the cracks. Before the city rolls over you and gets lodged in the bend of your
elbow. For now, I keep the green leafy things out of your mouth. I walk and climb with you in
baby leg galaxies. I rinse you out with all my might. As poor as you have been, you can still
command grace, though for us there's a wintering tree on every corner. Luckily, when you spend
the whole night spinning out like a gutted machine, I will love you enough to stitch you up alive.
Annmarie O'Connell is a lifelong resident of the Southside of Chicago and a graduate of New England College's MFA program in Henniker, New Hampshire. After working in social services, she decided to teach college writing. She recently taught Composition and Speech to culinary students pursuing their associate's degree. Her work has appeared in A-Minor Magazine and SOFTBLOW and is forthcoming in Whiskey Island Magazine, Camroc Press Review and The Rusty Nail. Her first chapbook, Her Last Cup of Light, will
be published by Aldrich Press this July.
Return to March 2013 Edition
It makes sense to let you wear your little gym shoes through the living room now. Before you're
sprung forth into the cracks. Before the city rolls over you and gets lodged in the bend of your
elbow. For now, I keep the green leafy things out of your mouth. I walk and climb with you in
baby leg galaxies. I rinse you out with all my might. As poor as you have been, you can still
command grace, though for us there's a wintering tree on every corner. Luckily, when you spend
the whole night spinning out like a gutted machine, I will love you enough to stitch you up alive.
Annmarie O'Connell is a lifelong resident of the Southside of Chicago and a graduate of New England College's MFA program in Henniker, New Hampshire. After working in social services, she decided to teach college writing. She recently taught Composition and Speech to culinary students pursuing their associate's degree. Her work has appeared in A-Minor Magazine and SOFTBLOW and is forthcoming in Whiskey Island Magazine, Camroc Press Review and The Rusty Nail. Her first chapbook, Her Last Cup of Light, will
be published by Aldrich Press this July.
Return to March 2013 Edition