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Lindsay Stewart

Maybe Medusa was my eleventh grade English teacher

People talk about heroes using past tense
 
              when there are thousands of teenagers who have hung on the word of a woman
 
at the front of an ordinary room. No matter the sound of the bell
 
              no matter the shit that went down in the comments last night
 
no matter the page count we made ourselves new each day
 
              in a den of her nesting. She did it like I could do it too, no makeup,
 
attire irrelevant, her body made of many mighty
 
              mouths: loud, and sometimes angry. I wanted to do whatever
 
she asked of me, wanted to be like her: a monster, so many sets of eyes,
 
              always watching. Her voice would build and we, in desks, 
 
enraptured, held our breath until our notebooks filled, 
 
              wanting something bigger, and
 
terrifying. We watched in awe, sick with laggard
 
              curiosity, as she rendered the boy with the Bieber cut immobile. Though
 
he was back the next day because, like the best of monsters, she was
 
              merciful. But there was that one Monday, when she brought
 
her daughter to class. Until then, it had never occurred to me that she
 
              could also be a mother–a mother to someone
 
else, a woman who waited in the same traffic I did 
 
              to get here, a woman who made the world she is standing in.

Biography

​Lindsay Stewart is from Glen Ellen, California. Her second home is San Diego, where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in American Literature at San Diego State University. Her work has previously been featured in The Los Angeles Review, What Rough Beast, and one of her poems was recently featured on the Poetry Foundation’s VS podcast. She has work forthcoming in The I-70 Review. Visit her website: https://lindsaystewart.weebly.com
 
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    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions