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"Sunday Times" by Jenn Ashton

if you were looking for a reason to return—by Leah Nieboer

prolonged separation creates ultraviolet parameters.

the acacias have gone mad.

—concordant with paradoxical proportion,

it’s canning season,



the strawberry jam’s on the stove,

etc., etc.,

—quit the stagnation zone.

only so many operatic revolutions will win me back.



happiness is an anomaly.

a yellow clustered paradox.

or is it parody?—

there’s a kink in the hose.



an otherness of mind rearranges to infinity.

extract the honey—

if only our instruments had been precisely tuned.

if I’d kept something good outside of you,—



did I mention the cicadas are out.

the tomatometer’s at full throttle,

you’ve become impossible to see.

you—abstracted me.



come clean.

wouldn’t you rather slingshot the curve of my thigh.

its gravitational pull.

x over y...



the strawberries keep confessing you to me.

a yellowness of mind rearranges to infinity.

what if we were only an experiment—

a once in a lifetime alignment.



can Love and Propulsion solve for x?—

cross the Is,

tangle and untangle the coordinates,

—there’s a kink in it.



I don’t want to be resigned to pain.

the given axiom.

its gravitational pull.

wouldn’t you rather—


Leah Nieboer grew up in Iowa. She is a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the recipient of a Virginia Center for Creative Arts Fellowship. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in JuxtaProse, Equinox: Poetry and Prose, and Synaesthesia Magazine. Find out what she's reading on Instagram: @mznieboer.

North Vancouver, B.C. Artist, and Author Jenn Ashton has lived a creative life that has encompassed everything from farming to the Boardroom; from BC to Harvard and back again. Coming from an artistic family she has brought a creative flair to all her projects large and small. Jenn is known for her originality, resourcefulness, and vision.  JennAshtonArt.com
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