Word Choice features original works of fiction and poetry. Read two poems by Jared Stanley with art by Simon Nunn, selected by Daniel Moysaenko.

 

                           October

                           When I prop the left

                           side of my head on my

                           left hand, my heart starts

                           beating in my right ear;

                           the hairs on that ear catch

                           the last of this year’s sun

                           heat, which is making spectral

                           filigrees in the hairs which

                           cover that lobe in

                           tiny prisms (these days

                           of emphatic color)

                           prismatic like the leg

                           hairs of pre-pubescent

                           boys and girls—I

                           was one of those

                           once, staring at

                           my shins; the hairs

                           exactly the same as

                           the hairs on Katrina’s,

                           who was on the floor

                           with her legs straight out

                           her back propped up

                           on a plush mauve ottoman

                           at the after school bible study

                           group somebody or other

                           convinced me to go to.

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