Period

by Katie Mihalek

Image: “Public Address 3: Phantom Limb Mandrill” by Jeff Johnston

I have many months to give

of red. Many tides ebb and flow

on a counter not baked into rules

of this world like they are along

the curves of my body. I have many

to give. I molt and yet the feathers

never leave me. I, a wet bird, shake

off the soak. I, the dragonfly, I scoop

into my hands, upside down

in the ocean, staring at a sky

it thought it could never

again join.

I wish you

the cramp in my back.

I hope you

the lining that sheds

itself out

of me. I gift you

my organs made

a caution, a warning,

for all I cycle

through me.

I gift you them.

They must leave

me anyways.

---

Katie Mihalek is a poet, editor, and educator living in Somerville, MA. She is the author of Aurora Uteralis, a chapbook from Finishing Line Press. She holds an M.S. in Medical Sciences from Boston University and an MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College, and is the Poetry Editor for Fork Apple Press. She has received support from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and the Southampton Writers Conference, and was the 2024-25 Community Engagement Fellow for Mass Poetry. Her work can be found in Frontier, TIMBER, Sheila-Na-Gig, and others.

Jeff B. Johnston was born and raised, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He earned a BFA from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his love of fine art began. A graphic design career took Jeff in 2003 to Baltimore, and rather quickly after that to Washington DC, where he exhibited in a number of gallery spaces. Jeff's design career then led him to Los Angeles in 2009, and in 2012, to San Francisco. In 2014, Jeff returned to his true love of fine art. Jeff earned his MFA in studio art at the San Francisco Art Institute (2016), and continued to be involved with SFAI until its recent closure. Instagram: @jeffbjohnston