Nostalgia Recovers / Progression Restores

Hailey Lexii

We hiked through the columns of cucumbers,
plucking the young from the curvature; Davidson’s earth

kicked up calf-ache till we jarred petits cornichons
with her mother and ate. Every bite

rang staccato foreshadows of insight
and dread because premature things could be
whole yet extracted.

/

In summer, we cackled in saccharine
heat, Absolut in the freeze
box. My Dad rattled

off his top jokes for my queer friends
at drop-off. By morning, the Nosoi had wrung
my neck dumb with the whiplash of yesterday’s

vapors usurping my tongue and I prayed
to a God I’d forsaken. She screamed
at me never to do it again.

/

I send her a picture. My God,
that’s the past, she says. You’ll never guess
who I’m seeing now. I ask,

say hi, send my love, and apologies?
Loss was a hole in the boat. I mismanaged
the flow before growth. She is kind:

oh my love,
we have all had to grow.

Hailey Lexii is a queer poet living on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is a psychology student, gratitude brat, and hopeless optimist. She wants to say, "thank you!" IG: @bluer.abbits