POETRY BY ALEXANDRA CORINTH

“Thoughts on the Kavanaugh Hearings, Part II”

She says she is terrified
and I wish I shared something else with her,
a mundane and specific thing
like an astrological sign or
a favourite kind of pen,
instead of this horrific and
common experience
with violent hands
and lying men

“Thoughts on the Kavanaugh Hearings, Part III”

He cries
and memories rise like dust in lukewarm water—

on his knees
begging

sorries like poppies

and I let myself be lulled to sleep
by the promise of dream dark

accept the lies as
pretense for persistence—

and how do I condemn
what I have already forgiven?

“Thoughts on the Kavanaugh Hearings, Part VII”

Lady Liberty sighs,
whispers, “so this is
what it feels like to
be cleaved in two”
and sinks into the bay,
a relic of an imagined era

because were we not always
of two minds?

“Thoughts on the Kavanaugh Hearings, Part VIII”

When she looks up,
she meets the eyes of 1991,
and I wonder if it feels like going back in time,
and if she can see it that way,
if she can feel the magic between
the pockets of horribleness,

and then I wonder if
I’ve been trained too well,
another soldier in the
war against myself,
focusing on the smallest light
in a darkened room
instead of facing the
horror all around me,

the good little girl who never says no,
never tattles on the mean boys,
holds their secrets in the belly,
swallows them whole,
poisons herself
without making a sound.

Alexandra Corinth is a disabled writer and artist based in DFW. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Artifact, the mise en abyme poetry tarot project, the Mayo Review, Mad Swirl, Thimble Literary Magazine, and Atticus Review, among others. Her poem, “A Guide for the Visitors of Solovetsky Monastery” was chosen as a top 10 winner of the Writer’s Garret’s 2018 Common Language Project. You can find her online at typewriterbelle.com.