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Abbie Doll

you dropped the ball when the ball dropped but i won’t hold that against you

Untitled by Thomas Nordwest

i love it when
you forget
to kiss me
—especially when
a new year begins
because then
in lieu of one brief
midnight exchange,
you commit yourself
all january first
to planting pecks
on me, the backyard spruce
& you, the red-bellied woodpecker
tap-tap-tapping
me with your beak
chiseling away,
until we form
a cavity in
my bark
big enough
to nest
this sappy love.

 

About the writer:
Abbie Doll is a writer residing in Columbus, Ohio, with an MFA from Lindenwood University and is a fiction editor at Identity Theory. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Door Is a Jar Magazine, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, and Ellipsis Zine, among others.

Image: Untitled by Thomas Nordwest (contemporary). Digital image. No technical information specified. 2023. By free license.

OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprint Buttonhook Press and HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, supports writers and artists worldwide.

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Abbie Doll creative writing literary arts narrative poetry poetry: all forms & styles Thomas Nordwest you dropped the ball when the ball dropped but i won’t hold that against you