Arlene Naganawa

WE WERE TALKING ABOUT WHEN WE HAD BODIES

Our fingers, keys, scraping. Bits of fractures.
Skin sliced on serrated edges, stitches like teeth,

like little mouths seared by fire, roughed by tongue.

Jewels sometimes fell from our hands—
foxglove, windblown anemones.

Arlene Naganawa is a lifelong Seattle resident and continue to love her hometown, despite its many changes. Her chapbooks include Private Graveyard (Gribble Press); The Scarecrow Bride (Red Bird Chapbooks), and The Ark and the Bear (Floating Bridge Press). She received grants in 2020 from Artist Trust (GAP) and CityArtist (Seattle Office of Arts and Culture). Her work appears in Waxwing, Crab Creek Review, Washington 129, Barnstorm, The Cape Rock, The Seattle Review of Books, Belletrist, All the Sins and other publications. She is a current teacher with Writers in the Schools (Seattle Arts and Lectures) and Scribes instructor at Hugo House.