'Sadie and the Art of Not Knowing Where To Go Next': A Poem by Iris Wright

SADIE AND THE ART OF NOT KNOWING WHERE TO GO NEXT

you and your pretty pink

punk vibes. Round

glasses and a button

downtown pounce on the ground

collared shirt patterned for

stoners but now for.

you and your platinum

piggytails, your pearly teeth.

Move like a star before

telescopes could track

you. Move like a peach before

gravity could pull you. Skip into

arms, out of grasps. Skip

records until you’ve made a new

beat. you and your pillaging

eyes. you and your sunflower

presence.

you and your neon eye

-lashes. your subway

arms and your skyscraper

breath. Breeze like a skate before

wheels took shape. Breeze like the

air before skin could

know. you and your sandwich

shop nails. you and your leather

streets, your painted

cheeks, your moonlight

laugh.

---

Iris Wright is a writer and flower arranger living near Chicago but about to move across the country to attend Brown University. She is also the founding editor of the online literary magazine Orris Root, which unites science with art and poetry. Her poetry and fiction has appeared in Mad Scientist Journal and in Genre: Urban Arts. Between short stories and poetry, Iris is working on her first science fiction novel.