The Sybil Abides in Her Therapist’s Waiting Room

The past peels me off like red pared down to
parent rock (think barn, cadaver, three-wheeled

wagon upended in the bee garden). Before 
red was a thing brandished (cheek paint, sequin,

weaponised tongue). More a rank admixture 
of pepper skin oxide, city burnt to bone, colour

collapsed into ingot, cutaway graph of a
sea floor burnished to darkest dark. Furthest 

relation from the imitation Bo tree in this room
that suggests healing is a catchy idea bored

into a tainted ear-mind. Or is healing, on the page,
no different from the hyphenations in this poem?—

another tactic to distance my skinless heart, 
watch it bursting slow-motion in airless sanctuary, 

place of forever return. Skinless as light orbiting itself
in the denouement of anyone’s longest day. This

failed apprentice, spinning wreckage into filaments
of farewell: one word I count on to never change

its meaning. Ending of endings itself, never as clean
as I’d imagine or wish, or design.

Poet, interdisciplinary artist, and cultural worker Stephanie JT Russell’s most recent book is One Flash of Lightning(Andrews McMeel). Her poetry and artworks are anthologized in numerous publications, including Xavier Review, The Winter Anthology, and ArLiJo (Gival Press). She has performed, exhibited and guest-lectured at noted venues including The New Museum, The Griffin Museum of Photography, Bowery Poetry Club, Berkeley Museum, New York University, and Vassar College. Russell received Overall Winner of the 2022 Wirral Poetry Festival Competition, UK, and the 2024 Jinquinteng Poetry Festival Award. As Dutchess County Poet Laureate, Russell’s intercultural series featured 40 poets and 9 visual artists. http://www.stephaniejtrussell.com