Rhienna Renèe Guedry

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.

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Winter 2021