Lannie Stabile: Guilt Has Rendered Us

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

How Guilt Has Rendered Us Unrecognizable

The first time a boy went down on me, his
keen tongue stoking

my buttoned guilt,

initiation gnawed at the arches of my feet. I
could not stand near my mother with such

a frenzied secret.

Now, I don’t even tell her how my day is. She
never asks.

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Lannie Stabile (she/her), a queer Detroiter, often says while some write like a turtleneck sweater, she writes like a Hawaiian shirt. A finalist for the 2019/2020 Glass Chapbook Series and semifinalist for the Button Poetry 2018 Chapbook Contest, she is usually working on new chapbook ideas, or, when desperate, on her neglected YA novel. Works can be found, or are forthcoming, in Glass Poetry, 8 Poems, Kissing Dynamite, Monstering, Honey & Lime, and more. Lannie currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Barren Magazine and is a member of the MMPR Collective.

Twitter handle: @LannieStabile