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Johns Hopkins UniversityEst. 1876

America’s First Research University
Poetry

What the Poet Has

By

Published Summer 2024
The color red and all its cousins. A yearning. Hushed erotic dreams. A pen for writing postcards and a pen for writing poems and a pen for marking moving boxes “Books: Poetry S-T.” Two brown tabby cats: one who speaks in a low complaining chatter, one with a highpitched mow. A vocal tic often mistaken for a laugh. The disease of doubt. The memory of a cat with emerald eyes. His collar draped over a cedar box. The ashes inside. Somewhere, a child’s drawing of an orange cat in crayon, washed over in violet watercolor. Memory of how it felt to have the small hand that made it, Crayola wax, satisfaction of paper peeling back. Breath. Pain. Fewer constitutional rights than yesterday. The way a saxophone’s pleading peals made her blink each time they sang.

"What the Poet Has" has previously appeared in Foglifter. It also appears in Russell's new book, A Window That Can Neither Open nor Close, forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in August 2024.

Posted in Voices+Opinion