Women’s Shoes – Size 5

A. Pikovsky

Sometimes

I forget to remember

Like a silent-moving dream

I fade around the edges

Soft at the seams

Stiff in the heels

But there’s always a chill

Lurking behind me

Pulling wind

 Through my teeth

It widens my eyes

 

Wake me

​

Wake me

​

Wake me

​

//

​

Touch me

​

(only if I allow it)

​

___________________

​

Sometimes

I can’t remember to forget

Why I wear my skin

Thick & now

It’s plastered to my bones

Tough to chew

& hard to shed

That impulse of shame

It gets caught in knots

By my arches

I’m stumbling here / there

It’s something in this city air

The wind’s correction

With a touch of blame?

It tells me:

My smile is too wide

My voice is too loud

& now

My mouth has legs

Always

R

​

  U

​

    N

​

      N

​

         I

​

          N

​

            G 

 

 

Silence me.

​

Silence me.

​

Silence me. 

​

A. Pikovsky is a poet living in Philadelphia who has been writing poetry since childhood. She is the daughter of immigrants and the first in her family to be born in America. This is the second poem she has ever submitted to a publication. She writes as an act of resistance, love, and autonomy. Her works cover many topics ranging from psychology to politics, but she always pulls from her experiences and observations as a queer, intersectional feminist.

Issue V