Hillary Leftwich

A video poem: Use an Acceptable Color 

Text:

​Pink baby plastic flesh
Watch as the color of skin flashes
white to pink to white again
His hands and feet
mistaken for pennies
Dig all four nails into lifeline
Somewhere, a plastic baby Jesus
Waits for the sting
Shapeshift into plank form
through empty all-night laundry mats
Tuck right thumb inward
As we pass the tree line of parking meters
Raise arm, let fly
Hands of the homeless 
Make contact

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​Hillary Leftwich is the author of two books, Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock (Agape Editions, 2023, new edition) and Aura (Future Tense Books and Blackstone Audio Publishing, 2022), and a collection of experimental forms TBA. She owns Alchemy Author Services and Writing Workshop and teaches writing at The University of Denver, Colorado College, and Unity Environmental University. On the outskirts of the writing world, she is also a professional Tarot Reader. Her latest work can be found or forthcoming in The Sun, Santa Fe Writers Project, and The Rumpus. She focuses her writing on class struggle, single motherhood, trauma, mental illness, the supernatural, ritual, and the impact of neurological disease. She teaches Tarot and Tarot writing workshops focusing on strengthening divination abilities and writing.