Vignette on Hands The only person I have ever given myself to called me gentle Like it was wrong and I, a broken thing for loving that way It has not made me any less tender This time, it still feels right Like I am not a broken body No matter how many times my hands have ached to make me that way They haven't So maybe they know no other way to be than soft But maybe Some people like that
Most Waking Moments This is a poem for one of my best friends. Conversations with them go like this: “I am a massive ball of stress most waking moments” “ok, hard same, but still” And this time we do hold hands As we rest our softness in each other’s Before it grows into an ocean and a sky We both keep saying we’d melt Preferably not over the ice cream And we do And it’s not over the ice cream But yes, of course I melt around you You campfire of a person Yes, we’re all drawn to your warmth And your stories How you feel safe from all the darkness around us And yeah, of course I shiver a little I’m just not used to everything around me feeling so warm And yeah, I like your eyes in midday sunlight But I like them here too Glinting in the light from your campfire Or the moon You can whisper all your beach-hating secrets to me I’ll keep them safe As we walk around in normal human clothes Climb up the lifeguard towers Read each other poetry Keep each other safe there too Looking out from such great heights Over the vastness of the ocean You can encapsulate the world in a conch shell As long as you put us in it Hold it against your ear Listen to the silence as the waves lap against the shore Revel in this one perfect moment How you make the loud parts of me Quieter
About the author
Berent LaBrecque is a history teacher who currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he spends most of his time sending love into the universe and also eating snacks. His work can be found in BOMBFIRE, and is forthcoming in Ethel in August 2021. His chapbook “Sometimes It Rains” is available from Paper Asylum’s Crooked Treehouse Press at https://bit.ly/3i7aoFO. He thinks third person bios are weird, and probably misses you.
DIY MFA 