* a girl spills herself over the pavement

** she is barefoot

*** the girl calls out her name

Girl:               I am an aubade to you

                      I am                                   no longer                              hollow

                      No longer                             a shivering sliver

                      I am                                     a you                                    an after

Street:             What were you before?

Girl:    I was hunger a            now           now           now

            I was              the nectarine in my gut      pit-like

            picking          the pit             the fruit     the stone

            stoning myself to death         or        gutting my stomach into a

            well I was spilling                slick skein                  over

            my bones                                        in a skin bag

Street:              What are you?

Girl:    I am reincarnation                  cocooning              an old-new thing

                      frankensteining                      meta-psyche

            a metamorphic                       mawing                 resurrection

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Abbigail Ketsa (she/they) is an emerging settler poet and writer from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is finishing a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Alberta, hoping to teach university literature studies one day. She enjoys exploring death, existence, and the complex interrelationships of the universe through poetry. You can read their prose work in the Crossings Undergraduate Journal 2023 Special Edition and their prize-winning poem, (Rural*) Grandmother Alchemy, on the CLC web page. Abbigail hopes to share her experiences, strengths, and hope, and to forever be a work-in-progress. Instagram: abbi.ketsa