Issue Thirty-Four - Summer 2019

The Gift

By Shakira Croce

It was intended to be an exercise:
eight minutes with pencil and sketch paper,
the time limit imposed
to force focus on the most important
components of design.
My brother drew
with lines so sure.
A muscled figure reaches up
as if to signal a crowd to the floor
ready to break into dance
or to embrace the sky.
He’s another nude save for a wide-brimmed hat
perhaps for the sun
shining off the page. He said,
“Here, why don’t you keep this one.”
All these years later, I still feel the joy
of having him in my room
outstretched silhouette as bold as ever
despite the edges beginning to darken
suspended back against the wall.

Copyright 2019 Croce

Shakira Croce is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. A Georgia native, after studying writing at Sarah Lawrence College and completing a Masters at Pace University, she currently works as Communications Manager for a not-for-profit health care organization, Amida Care. Croce’s poetry translations have appeared in Babel magazine, and recently her poetry has been featured in the New Ohio Review, Pilgrimage Magazine, HIV Here & Now, Transactions, Ducts.org, and pioneertown. She was a featured reader in the Boundless Tales Reading Series, and she was a finalist in the Linda Flowers Literary Award competition. Her poetry was featured in the Nasty Women Art Exhibition in Queens, New York.

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