Egress

 By Alexandra Cipriani

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When we pluck

at piano keys,

linger in the doorway,

picture cobblestones weeping moss,

know that jollity is here

with all the old-time loveliness again.

Do not yield, but take splendor

in hitching breath;

how tears heed paths the same every time,

and when flesh meets ivory in chords of sugar.

The last drop slugs your gullet

as we sever from sticky, honeyed melodies

into air—

in bloom

in tune

with beads of sweat and lightning bugs.

Take no mind of the space.

There is no space.

Even between you and me,

this gap that you feel,

and hear,

and caress

is confetti betwixt those wrinkles.

Do not let sophism be all that you bear.

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Alexandra Cipriani is a Filipina-Italian writer currently based in Colorado with plans to build a career in publishing now that she has graduated from New York University's Summer Publishing Institute. She recently completed her bachelor's degree where she studied English at the University of Colorado Denver, and she continues to work for her institution’s literary magazine, Copper Nickel, as well as the publication October Hill Magazine. She is an emerging writer with work forthcoming in KRNT. @

literarywithlexi