"Luminate" by Julia Forrest
Moon Landing by Rebecca Valley
You are angry because I invited
the aliens to breakfast. You think they could be
dangerous. The aliens arrive in their orange jogging suits and
electric blue Adidas. They look like a picture
you might draw of an alien but much more
stylish. I have a lot of questions for our new friends,
for example: Will we ever be able to watch 3D movies
without those stupid glasses? The aliens are curious about waffles
and ask me what a president is. We are here, they say,
to study the limits of human tenderness. You spend the whole meal
in the kitchen, rinsing a single white plate. I have never
seen such dedication: mountains of clear-blue bubbles.
That night we have an argument about art. You say
what we have is plenty. I am afraid to tell you about
the circles I walk in the yard at night which
the aliens left
as a gift
You say
language is enough for our purposes
sure all erasure is a loss, though
I walk lonely figures in the dark.
I say
Some patterns are only visible from above
and anyway,
What do you know about grief?
How my feet glow even when you are sleeping
the aliens to breakfast. You think they could be
dangerous. The aliens arrive in their orange jogging suits and
electric blue Adidas. They look like a picture
you might draw of an alien but much more
stylish. I have a lot of questions for our new friends,
for example: Will we ever be able to watch 3D movies
without those stupid glasses? The aliens are curious about waffles
and ask me what a president is. We are here, they say,
to study the limits of human tenderness. You spend the whole meal
in the kitchen, rinsing a single white plate. I have never
seen such dedication: mountains of clear-blue bubbles.
That night we have an argument about art. You say
what we have is plenty. I am afraid to tell you about
the circles I walk in the yard at night which
the aliens left
as a gift
You say
language is enough for our purposes
sure all erasure is a loss, though
I walk lonely figures in the dark.
I say
Some patterns are only visible from above
and anyway,
What do you know about grief?
How my feet glow even when you are sleeping
Rebecca Valley is a poet and essayist from Saint Albans, Vermont. Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Rattle, ELKE: a little journal, Figure 1, and elsewhere. She was the winner of the 2019 Academy of American Poets Prize at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a Young Writers Project fellow at the Vermont Studio Center in April 2019. Her first chapbook, The Bird Eaters, was published by dancing girl press in 2017. She is an MFA Candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches creative writing and composition. You can find more of her work at www.rebeccavalley.com .
Julia Forrest is a Brooklyn based artist. She works strictly in film and prints in a darkroom she built within her apartment. Her own art has always been her top priority in life and in this digital world, she will continue to work with old processing. Anything can simply be done in photoshop, she prefers to take the camera, a tool of showing reality, and experiment with what she can do in front of the lens. Julia is currently working as a teaching artist at the Brooklyn Museum, Medgar Evers College, USDAN Art Center and Lehigh University. As an instructor, she thinks it is important to understand that a person can constantly stretch and push the boundaries of their ideas with whatever medium of art they choose. Her goal is for her audience to not only enjoy learning about photography, but to see the world in an entirely new way and continue to develop a future interest in the arts. You can find her at her WEBSITE and on instagram: @Juliajuliaajuliaa
