Poem for our tin anniversary by griffin epstein


Poem for our tin anniversary
by griffin epstein

We slept in the prickly grass 
by the chain link fence in Silver
Spring ignoring all sound
the shouting frogs preteens 
on the basketball court 
our own aching muscles 
side by side under a tree

I’ll make a map of every 
mangled bird I’ve ever
seen      in Gloucester 
in summer by the fish 
factory    on the road
near my mother’s or 
just yesterday in the 
parking lot when you
grabbed my arm to 
keep me from running
into the street

In Pittsburgh the sky 
put on a show for us    
tossing stars around as
flitting bugs blinking 
on and off after heavy rain 
and we thought maybe 
the world could be a 
big green field after all 

This is our abundance: all 
the versions of our lives 
unfurling in apartments 
we didn’t rent     still check 
the mailbox on Greenwood
the porch on Jones everywhere 
we’ve ever been holds the 
trace of us     our tangled 
hands jammed in each 
others’ pockets    our 
sneakers in a pile in 
the dry dirt   

Hear griffin epstein, and other selected poets, read their poems on The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast:

Images of Love: original poems by Lisa Delan / Griffin Epstein / K.T. Reid / David Radavich / Lawrence Bridges Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast

Submit your polished poetry for the opportunity of being published on ViewlessWings.com and being interviewed on The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

griffin epstein

griffin epstein is a non-binary white settler from NYC (Lenape land) working in education and community-engaged research in Toronto (Dish with One Spoon/Treaty 13). They have been featured in Glad Day’s Emerging Writers Series, and their poetry has appeared in CV2, Grain, The Maynard and Plenitude, among others. griffin is the author of the chapbook so we may be fed (Frog Hollow Press, 2021), and member of the experimental videogame collective shrunken studios. They develop multimedia work with poet Shannon Quinn and multi-disciplinary artist bryan depuy.

Website: griffinepstein.com

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