Not-Long Distance. A poem by Jaclyn Griffith

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Not-Long Distance
  
 It’s easier to love you on paper
 where everything is polished up
 planned ahead
 Where every word walks  
 from your hands 
 to my eyes
 and looks a lot like sunset
 Looks a lot like a garden
 Looks a lot like me
  
 In person
 not so much
 In person we are messy because our editors took the afternoon off
 In person we are rash retorts and butting heads
 Missing oxford commas, and dangling modifiers 
  
 In person we are brother and sister
 fighting over the TV remote
 In person, your words are your thoughts and sometimes they are midnight
 Sometimes they are crab grass
 Sometimes they are a rickety dock out to sea
  
 I am scared because in person 
 I look a lot like me 

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Jaclyn believes writing can be a political act. This belief has shaped Witches Mag, her feminist literary magazine, as well as her academic work, her blog posts, and her Instagram captions. Jaclyn’s poetry, personal essays, and journalism have been published in various outlets, including Siblíní Journal, Junto Magazine, and Beyond the Stage Magazine. When she isn’t writing, Jaclyn is usually in Providence, RI, listening to pop music, drinking red wine, and eating a charcuterie board, all at the same time. You can contact Jaclyn directly via email, jaclyn.griffith7@gmail.com. You can also read more about her feelings on Medium, http://medium.com/@jacgrifff, and on her Twitter and Insta, @jacgrifff. To read or submit to Witches Mag, visit witchesmag.com.

Published by darcie friesen hossack

Darcie Friesen Hossack is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. Her short story collection, Mennonites Don’t Dance, was a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Award, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading Evergreen Award for Adult Fiction. Citing irreverence, the book was banned by the LaCrete Public Library in Northern Alberta. Having mentored with Giller finalists Sandra Birdsell (The Russlander) and Gail Anderson Dargatz (Spawning Grounds, The Cure for Death by Lightening), Darcie's first novel, Stillwater, will be released in the spring of 2023. Darcie is also a four time judge of the Whistler Independent Book Awards, and a career food writer. She lives in Northern Alberta, Canada, with her husband, international award-winning chef, Dean Hossack.

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