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Shon Mapp

Bygones & Mixtapes

​we’d lie penguin bellied in a makeshift seance circle, 
a boombox at our heads, legs bent like L’s spelling laughter into the room, 
waiting for songs our mothers wouldn’t let us hear.
 
we were convinced the play, pause, and record buttons pressed, 
made for a cleaner transition.
but in the end, most of them were messy, muddled, clumsy, things
evidenced by our puerile creations, rife with ad snippets for shoes and eczema cream.
 
we’d listen all afternoon, for songs that never played
and still considered it time well spent.
joyfully expectant.
bright red sugary drink stained tongues singing and sucking teeth,
giddily unaware of how quickly 
songs, cassette tapes, and friendships become outdated
 
i'd mumble-mouth the lyrics to “O.P.P.” 
because only immigrants and weirdos didn’t know them, and i was both. 
i still don’t know them. 
that autumn of pretending robbed me of that, long before its popularity had waned. 
and my little coven never even noticed.
only after decades, came my eviction from our group,
and for a lesser offense.

Biography

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Shon Mapp (she/her) is an emerging writer with words appearing or forthcoming in Fourteen Poems, Ghost Heart, and Cathexis Northwest Press. Her works explore queer intimacy, multicultural identities, and nuclear kinship. 
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ISSN 2639-426X
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  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors List
    • KD's Blog
    • Award Nominations
    • Support
    • Contact
  • Press
  • Issues
    • 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