"Chillin' in the Industrial Garden" by Matthew Fertel

Patricia Davis-Muffett | Taurus in the night sky

Because of my stars,
I will not walk away–
will hold fast always
spoiling for a fight.

I am rarely quiet.
When I am, worry.
There is a storm I’ve been holding.
When it comes, it will destroy.

I will take your last rectangle of property,
mortgaged after hotels and houses have fallen.
I will make you ask, “How much for my
Get Out of Jail Free card?” I will offer
just enough to keep you alive.

I am generous with those I love.
I love them with abandon.
I will never let you go–
even if you beg me.

I would rather run ten miles
than measure each almond,
weigh each bit of meat.

The teenagers are choosing
names that fit them better.
I am Isa, strong-willed Teuton.
I am Constance, Patience, Petra, rocks.
I am Vesta of the hearth. I am Zohra
in bloom. I am Hayley of the high meadow,
Mae of the bright flower, Terra, Tara, earth.
I am Taura, the bull, lying down in high grasses,
smelling the flowers, eating my fill, waiting
for my chance, knowing
I can outlast you.

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Patricia Davis-Muffett (she/her) holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota. Her chapbook, Alchemy of Yeast and Tears, was published in spring 2023. Her work has won honors including Best of the Net 2022 nomination, inclusion in Best New Poets 2022, and second place in the 2022 Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, and appears in Atlanta Review, Whale Road Review, Calyx and About Place, among others. She lives in Rockville, Maryland, with her family.

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Matthew Fertel is a Sacramento-based photographer who has worked in the Photography department at Sierra College since 2004. Before that, he was a fine art auction house catalog photographer in San Francisco for over 10 years.

Matthew's current work focuses on capturing the minutiae he encounters in his daily life. He seeks to expose the hidden beauty in the everyday objects that make up the landscape of our existence. Going to the same locations over days, months and years allows him to capture images under different lighting and weather conditions, and to see objects change over long or short periods of time. There is art hidden everywhere if you learn to see it.

Learn more at his w​ebsite and on Instagram.