Rebecca Ferlotti (she/her) is a poet, nonfiction book editor, and chief content officer based in Ohio. Her work has been published in Wingless Dreamer, her local libraries’ poetry anthologies, and other magazines. She has presented at the Sigma Tau Delta conference both as a creative writing student at John Carroll University and as an alumna. Rebecca’s work also has been supported by the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop.
the sky opens green
dead flowers splay on sidewalks
dirt veins in concrete
The neighbors with tacky lights
drifted off hours ago
behind the shadow of a wooden Mickey Mouse
and tangled bushes
with tiny, purple flowers
that make me sneeze.
Someone once asked me
if I could hold in my allergies
with elephant weights—
latched lips,
out-of-order nose.
Sometimes,
with tissues in an outstretched arm,
I butterfly on the floor.
And sometimes,
I overdose
on air.
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