
Ampersand
You tested
a metallic gelly roller
pen’s color
by writing
the name
of its ink color
gold XPGM-M #551
& the name
of another color at random
periwinkle or
ultramarine
pen in hand I watched you
& every
beautiful name escaped me
what to call two girls skipping school
out of all the options all the words
I wrote the word “test”
Test
T E S T
Test
Test
T e S t
& why couldn’t I think of
anything better than that
test
you were L.C. sometimes F.
& we never named it
we coulda left our initials
carved into the
bark of those little
notepads all over town

Rhienna Renèe Guedry is a Louisiana-born writer and artist who found her way to the Pacific Northwest, perhaps solely to get use of her vintage outerwear collection. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in Empty Mirror, Bitch Magazine, Screen Door, Scalawag Magazine, Taking the Lane, and elsewhere on the internet. Find more about her projects at rhienna.com or @chouchoot on Twitter.