Kennings

Mya Matteo Alexice | Poetry

let’s call it a heartrend. let’s call my memories of you a pastgrave. let’s make
a new word for it: friendgrief. there are only two whaleroads between us.
both of us survivors of choicetheft. it made it hard to chestopen safely. last
time we chestopened each other the heatball sweltered in the blueair. my
bonehouse misses your bonehouse. not sure when the bloodsweat will stop.
but this pastgrave is nice. there are flowers here. let’s call them babysuns.
sunstems. sundancers. petalstars. let’s call them proof we were here.

Mya Matteo Alexice is a Black and white graduate of the Rutgers-Newark MFA. A Cave Canem fellow and pseudo-librarian, they are the author of A Shape We’ve Yet to Name. Matteo’s poems can be found in publications such as Pleiades, Black Warrior Review, Copper Nickel, diode, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Bennington Review, Honey Literary and elsewhere. They’ve received fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center, and more. They were the runner-up in the 2023 Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest judged by Gary Soto. He enjoys video games where you can make the characters kiss.