Three Poems by Hollis Teves

BLACK HAIR

I have
not written a love poem
since the last
time I was
crossing a busy
street seeing
that thick black braid trailing
down and running
to reach it
so now I am
writing a love poem
like a fool who is
still seeing
that black hair curled this
time around stepping off the
curb in time to be
hit and killed and
smiling all the way

MANY OF ME

How many of me
or those like me
are hovering birdlike,
hummingbirdlike,
shimmering above
their bodies, looking
down and knowing
this is not something
to drink from. This
is not a pink dahlia.
This not the body
we can survive off,
but it is all we have.

HAVE I LOST

God! Have I lost that
Thing I had that made people go
OH this is a poem! OH this is a thing which makes me know
you Hollis
This is a hand pulling off a veil in some
old gothic where the face underneath is beautiful maybe either that
or it is hideous and you watch cause it is writhing and ready to speak
This is digging a nail into the dimple of a cutie nectarine and opening it and splitting it into
All of its pieces
So that we can all share it while we are at lunch in kindergarten
And so that we may each tear into it with
That vigor that only children have

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Hollis Teves is a non-binary queer poet who lives and works in Orange, CA and San Diego, CA. Their work has previously appeared in Calliope, Sapere Aude, The Messy Heads, Neologism Poetry Journal, and elsewhere, and they are the co-editor-in-chief of The Fruit Tree. Contact them at hnteves@gmail.com or on Twitter @unisexlove.