Issue Thirty-Five - Winter 2020

Variation on a Theme by Alison Luterman

By Jacob Butlett

I could be a silver butterfly clip in
an airplane passenger’s auburn hair.
Or I could be red-tinted glasses in
a taxi rider’s tan satchel.
I could hold the hand of the man at
the train station, clutch his
callouses like a lover, like a glove.
Or I could caress the lips of the woman at
the bus stop, keep a kiss of her
lipstick on the mirror of my heart.

But I want to be with you, traveling down
gravel roads in Budapest, down
brown canals in Venice, down
ashy hills in Honolulu.
I want to be your passport, duffle bag,
sleeping bag, box of matches whose
flames can carry you away from
darkness like a million moonlit balloons.
I want to be your ears, I want to be your eyes.
I want to be a volcano, your volcano,
bursting with a love so bright, the stars
will roll their eyes in jealousy.

Copyright 2020 Butlett

Jacob Butlett is an award-winning gay storyteller with an A.A. in General Studies and a B.A. in Creative Writing. In 2017 he won the Bauerly-Roseliep Scholarship for literary excellence, and in 2018 he received a Pushcart Prize nomination for poetry. Some of his work has been published in The MacGuffin, Panoply, Rat's Ass Review, Cacti Fur, Gone Lawn, Rabid Oak, Ghost City Review, Lunch Ticket, Fterota Logia, Into the Void, and plain china. He was selected as a finalist in the 2019 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards residency competition.

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