by Annie
Stenzel
Starting now, I propose to use GOOD, instead
of good when I talk about a Good thing,
and to say PRETTI rather than pretty, when I am struck
by how pleasing something looks to me.
I want this murdered woman, that executed
man, to live on in my speech with their names
alive and visible, notwithstanding their absence from
what should be a Good world, where so much is Pretti.
I could do nothing to save them from the horror
of their deaths. Nor can I do anything
for their loved ones, or the people whose lives they graced
every day. Grief won’t allow me to turn back
the hands of time, restore someone who was Good
and someone who was Pretti to this
frightening world.
Annie
Stenzel (she/her) is a lesbian poet who was born in Illinois, but did not stay
put. Her second full-length collection, Don’t misplace the moon, was published
in 2024 by Kelsay Books. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in print
and online journals in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., including Action,
Spectacle; Gavialidae; Innisfree Poetry Journal; Pine Hills Review; Rust + Moth; Sheila-na-Gig;
SoFloPoJo; SWWIM; St, Katherine’s Review; Thimble Lit Mag; and Whale Road Review.
A poetry editor for the online journals Right Hand Pointing and West
Trestle Review, she lives on unceded Ohlone land within walking distance of
the San Francisco Bay.
