GYMNASIUM

My first friend was about the length of our hair
But that wasn’t my first crown of flowers
My first death was about theatrics
Basically, the New York City Ballet
My first boyfriend was about men
Pets, community
Someone’s half-moon gaze trailing me home
Signaled a kind of subconscious
Shared, broken
My first cross-country move was about windows
My interior was a cat for many years
Sealing the edges of the community garden
I want to learn more about rhymes
How they have hands, how they don’t

—

from Issue 13 of Afternoon Visitor

Read more here

—

Caitlyn Klum’s poems appear or are forthcoming in LARB Quarterly, American Chordata, Brink, and elsewhere. She is a PhD student in English and Literary Arts (Poetry) at the University of Denver.