Joanna Acevedo

I Have A Dream You Need To Tell Me Something Important
Lately, I panic. The trees are all on fire. No one I know is dead.
 
I’m always in between—you and something else.
Learning how to breathe again, better this time. With gusto.
 
I’m trying not to carve my name into your heel. Semi-permanent.
 
You say unstuck. I say blaze of glory. We’re at an impasse.
I have an addiction to jokes like this. A man walks into a bar.
 
Give me a reason not to throw your name into the tar pit.
I’m waiting—
 

Joanna Acevedo (she/they) is the Pushcart nominated author of the poetry collection The Pathophysiology of Longing (Black Centipede Press, 2020) and the short story collection Unsaid Things (Flexible Press, 2021). Her work has been seen across the web and in print, including in Hobart Pulp, Digging Press, and the Write Launch. She is a Guest Editor at the Masters Review and Frontier Poetry, Associate Poetry Editor at West Trade Review, Reviews Editor for the Great Lakes Review, and received her MFA in Fiction from New York University in 2021. She is supported by Creatives Rebuild New York: Guaranteed Income For Artists. http://joannaacevedo.net