"We'll Go Back Together One Day" by Marisol Brady

Fruitfly [3] by Tyler Friend

       after John Berryman

Unkissed, but alive
& growing older than I thought I would. Standing
in clover & moss, could be
worse. My therapist could take your therapist
in a fight, or
out on a date, maybe. Either way, I think they’d really hit it

off. I love being under things—
lately: a cat, a weighted blanket. It helps
with the loneliness, this
contagion. I dream of a thick chest
resting upon mine, but
I’ve been learning

that maybe you were a jerk, John, all turned around
& circling. I don’t blame you. Empathy
is what I’ve been learning about recently. We all shout
when we see the rocket blow up
with astronauts inside, but
every day the kids continue to die, quiet.

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Tyler Friend is a poet and designer who was grown—and is still growing—in Tennessee. They are the author of Him or Her of Whatever (Alternating Current Press, 2022).

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Marisol Brady is a self-taught photographer whose work examines the ephemerality of capitalist excess, nostalgic distortion, times we’ve had, times we’ve been told we had, and the time we have left. They cast an optimistic, neon-lensed glance at the decay precipitated by the hyper-escalating economic inequality and planetary destruction of the past four decades that, with some squinting, recognizes its transformative potential. Originally hailing from Long Island’s south shore, Marisol lives in Brooklyn.