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**SURVIVANCE (MENTHA)

BY ERIN KOEHLER

 

State University of New York – Geneseo, ’15
2015 Adroit Prize for Poetry: Editors List

To make love with blue jays: shrink & hitch
to stinkbug wings. Scrape apart pinecone—: fold
scales as sunscreen. We bite down on lemon seeds : : We plant

lemon seeds in our eardrums. Bed in alyssum
& hammer stakes to break concrete: lack root patience : : drink
earth through our feet. Fearing terracotta,

all wire & plywood, we kissed in the chicken coop; we kissed by the salt
lick. Honey stiff, I dagger down:— crouch & pull
feathers from your hair. I fight to go to seed; steal

ice cubes for my tongue & I am rum-fine: let the water drip
down jaw edges as they swell me—I break
off my ears & sell them to street vendors as spare parts.

Born and raised outside Rochester, NY, Erin Koehler will be graduating from SUNY Geneseo in May, 2015, with a B.A. in English (Creative Writing) and a minor in Native American studies. Her poetry has been or will be featured in Terrain, Stone Highway Review, and elsewhere. She is currently the Managing Editor for the SUNY-wide literary journal Gandy Dancer, as well as a reader/reviewer for Diverse Kids Books. Post-undergrad, Erin hopes to find a career writing children’s literature.