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Schyler Butler

As If Still

I am not hunky dory, splashed upon a hot sidewalk  
next to you watching the sun spill its mercy on the horizon.  
It is your horizon, this ivy laced suburb  
a portrait hanging free in your nostalgia. 
You point here and there, your former home  
a Hallmark greeting boasting trees once new  
and now grown, surrounded by avenues  
and green spaces that remember your laughter,  
that cradled the broken pride of your first car crash,  
that watched you punch your brother then disappear  
into its woods, mulberry potions laced with black willow leaves  
a bit of solace. A prosperous childhood, I suppose, since despite  
its hiccups and squabbles, you love your family and they love you. 
 
It is no accident that my insides scream with every step, 
that I jostle beneath the sun’s rays and yearn to raise my fist in its direction,  
this same sun spilling upon my youth though I couldn’t see it,  
my nostalgia dreaming of salvation for my people, 
of creating time machines for every generation as if different versions  
of me could travel back to plantations, to new ghettos 
and cold houses and all that desolation with bowls of mercy,  
as if the sun spilled in me something that could save them. 

Biography

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Schyler Butler's (she/her) work appears in Transition, Hobart, African American Review, Narrative Northeast, Obsidian, Juked, and elsewhere. Currently, she lives in Columbus, OH. Find her on Instagram: @whistle_the_blues and Twitter: @SchylerButler 
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ISSN 2639-426X
© COPYRIGHT 2018-2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
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    • Issue 50
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    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • 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