Vanessa Couto Johnson's poems have appeared in many journals, including FIELD, Blackbird, smoking glue gun, and cream city review. Her first chapbook, Life of Francis, won Gambling the Aisle's 2014 Chapbook Contest. A forthcoming chapbook, speech rinse, won Slope Editions' 2016 Chapbook Contest. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Brazilian born in Texas (dual citizen), she is currently a Lecturer at Texas State University, where she earned her MFA.
rotoscoping collage {Bill Wise}
And this, this is like my little window to the world, and every minute's a different show. By an unheating fireplace, young Irish women are shoving each other. Now I may not understand it. You drink juice because water sometimes bores you. I may not even necessarily agree with it. I let myself eat sugared peanuts. But I'll tell you what, I accept it and just sort of glide along. My strategy is to ask few questions, allowing prolix answers whim. But this low-cut shirt does not do well in wind. You want to keep things on an even keel, I guess is what I'm saying. I went beyond idle to desire after our first sentences. You want to go with the flow. From the scrape of a crowd to cool street. The sea refuses no river. I invite you between myself and a bed. The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving. The windows are open and we are not that quiet. It saves on introductions and goodbyes.