By Cameron Atlas Chiovitti

  	after Jari Bradley 

I was the only boi I knew dreaming in soft bruise- 
dried pavement praying to the sky for the rain’s 
persistent fists to pry open my sealing wounds. 
I awoke every night with hurricanes in my veins. 

I could never be a boy the way boys are supposed to, 
so I grew my hair to my waist when the kids called me heshe; 
stitched rose petals to my scalp with gravel & glue; 
hollowed the holes in my bones to make way for the sea. 

Storms smell sweetest in the wake of destruction. 
I capture the twilight’s mist in my cologne; 
drown the girl in my hips in the midst of interruption; 
bury her beneath the boy swelling in my breastbone. 

Maybe I am neither this girl’s breath or that boy’s regret, 

but a lullaby boi bursting from a bruising sunset. 

1856 Nesting by Serge Lecomte

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cameron Atlas Chiovitti, a creative writing student at OCAD University, uses poetry to explore what it means to be human through the context of their experiences. Each new piece is both a deeper exploration into their craft and their healing. Some of Cameron’s most notable publications to date include FreezeRay Poetry, The Closed Eye Open, LSTW, and their self-published chapbook, Paint My Skin With Sweetness. All of their work currently available online can be found here: https://linktr.ee/maskofpoetry.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Serge Lecomte was born in Belgium. He came to the States where he spent his teens Brooklyn. After graduation he joined the Medical Corps in the Air Force. He earned a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Russian Literature. He worked as a Green Beret language instructor at Fort Bragg, NC from 1975-78. In 1988 he received a B.A. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Spanish Literature. He worked as a language teacher at the University of Alaska (1978-1997). He worked as a house builder, pipe-fitter, orderly in a hospital, gardener, landscaper, driller for an assaying company, bartender.

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