Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio
With my dress made of picnic blankets
I set out for the tundra.
I put on my clogs,
my suit of gathered hairs.
The coins collect in the crags outside
and I collect the coins in my big mug.
I scrape the ground with a tuning fork
I scrape the ground with a weird umbrella.
Soon, my mug spills over!
I wave to the ducks melting on ice.
I fight the rubber shark whose name is Half Brother.
The cowbell rings and I dine.
Hello, casserole dish! Hello, carpeted stair!
Hello, rowboat in which I am not allowed!
Hiding under the table, I find a piece of my dress.
I find it and I fold it and I offer it back to the ducks.
Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio
is a poetry fellow at UT Austin’s Michener Center for Writers. In 2018, she received an Academy of American Poets prize (selected by Dorothea Lasky). Luci has two lesbian moms and is originally from New Jersey.
Art by Jury S. Judge
“Vein Virtues”
Photography
Jury S. Judge is an internationally published artist, writer, poet, and cartoonist. Her “Astronomy Comedy” cartoons were published in Lowell Observatory’s publication, The Lowell Observer. She was interviewed on the television news program, NAZ Today for her work as a cartoonist. Her artwork has been widely featured in over one hundred and thirty literary magazines, including on the covers of Blue Mesa Review, 3 Elements Review, Glass Mountain, and Levitate. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 2014. In addition to art and photography, her passions include hiking and traveling to exciting, new destinations. Visit her Instagram account @jurysjudge.