"Blank Modern Art Sonnet" by Joanna Cleary

Blank Modern Art Sonnet

today, when i drive home in a downpour, 
i see that metal sculpture streaked with rust
no one ever notices anymore
by the highway. 

                             (it’s as mean as a heart:
you said, you said, you said.)

                                                i told you once
we should leave the car, run naked through trees,
live out childhood fantasies we’re ashamed
we still have.

                        you thought that i was joking 
and said we could play rough in our bodies
until they betrayed us, then when they did
you’d hurt for me. 

                                the rain still hasn’t stopped
as i park; 

                  it makes me forget sunlight,
how we’d warm one another’s steel-
soaked skins. 

                        (That thing? you say, inside.
                                            It’ll be torn down.)

Joanna Cleary

Joanna Cleary is an undergraduate student, double majoring in English Literature and Theatre and Performance, at the University of Waterloo. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in The /tƐmz/ Review, The Hunger, Pulp Poets Press, Every Pigeon, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and Subterranean Blue Poetry, among others. Follow her on instagram @joannacleary121.

Headshot: Sam Toman

Photo Credit: Staff