Nina and Frida Enter the Chat

By FELICE BELLE

these biddies with their deadbolt backs/ take naps
while i construct/ canvas from corset cast

art does not wait until you are well

what they did not understand—the training was classical

chopin, motherfuckers/ carry on like she some backwater bluesy
least common denominator/ reduced me

addiction is not a hobby

no one will hear what i see/ unless they inhabit my body
surgeons don’t count/ the wrong lover, maybe

muse is reality

want more than you’re given/ be difficult as necessary

loving a man/ who belongs to the world/ is like lying in lava
no one asks if he can/ have it all

let him knock you down/ throw you up
against the wall/ put a frame on it

i don’t want the preacher/ i want the pulpit

 

Felice Belle is a poet and playwright. Her debut collection, Viscera, is forthcoming from Etruscan Press. She is a lecturer in the low-residency MFA program at St. Francis College in Brooklyn and chief storyteller for the global nonprofit Narrative 4.

[Purchase Issue 25 here.]

Nina and Frida Enter the Chat

Related Posts

a bookshelf with books!

Translation: Sindhu Library

GEET CHATURVEDI
When for the first time I entered Sindhu Library, I felt intimidated by its dark, damp interiors, mustiness, and its mystery. In the compound outside, a woman sat with balloons in her hand. Balloons in every colour, restless in the breeze, waiting for their release.

never be a punching bag movie poster

Review: Never Be A Punching Bag For Nobody

HANNAH GERSEN
70 acres of rolling hills, playing fields, trees, and waterfront vistas—a shared community space for playing, picnicking, relaxing, and celebrating—was razed and leveled in one weekend. In its place is a long, flat, fenced-off runway.

Hall of Mirrors

November 2023 Poetry Feature: Virginia Konchan and Gabriel Spera

GABRIEL SPERA
Gracefully we hold each other / architects and optimists / always at arm’s length like / congenital dreamers / tango masters slinkily coiled / bright candles in a hall of mirrors / whatever I propose you propose / to conquer repeating and repeating / the opposite.