Having a Baby at 20

by Annie Przypyszny

“Baquedano with Loops” by Howard Skrill

is one option 

            I’m in my prime

and fertile years my baby

            would slide out fat and soft

and squat as a peach I could name it

            Jack or Jill or Fido or Spot

and keep it in an antique bassinet

            with Easter-pink ruffles 

and if that’s not enticing just think 

how lovely I might look

when pregnant because some women

            really do my skin would shine

like pearls and my belly would expand

            like some huge jurassic flower

in its wet heat of bloom and though

            I have no real job as of yet

I have nice parents and a boyfriend

            who would stay or at least 

feel really bad about leaving

            and my friends would throw me

a shower we’ll have afternoon tea

            with binky-shaped cookies

and what’s not to like about that

            I love parties I love cookies

I love cute small things and my baby

            would be so cute imagine

its eyes so big so bright its happy

kicking legs its pink bud of mouth 

latching onto my breast as it drinks me 

all up as it sucks the years 

out of me like milk just like milk

Howard Skrill’s latest works on paper are perhaps an inevitable progression from the practice he launched in 2013, when he would carry around a folding chair and whatever materials he could fit in his paint-smeared backpack to make plein air drawings of public monuments in walking distance from his Brooklyn home, where he has lived for decades with his wife. The monumental transformations that he has faithfully represented in his recent studio works on paper document objects broken by hammers, chisels and human hands, obscured by markers, spray paint, and plastic wrap and ultimately brought down by lassos and cranes. Works from the series are being exhibited and published widely. Howard is a long time resident of Brooklyn, NY where he lives with his wife.

Annie Przypyszny is a poet from Washington, DC pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Maryland. She is an Assistant Editor for Grace and Gravity and has poems published or forthcoming in The Northern Virginia Review, Jet Fuel Review, Watershed Review, The Healing Muse, North Dakota Quarterly, Tupelo Quarterly, Ponder Review, SWWIM, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, SoFloPoJo, and others.

Insta: @pryps