girls will b
girls when they learn
to smile
ugly with their back teeth
when they learn to snort
their joy
not giggle but
guffaw girls
will b girls
when they transmutate
into the mudwrecked
frog in the fairytale pond
when they learn the deep
rutting freedom of a primal
scream on the playground,
25 & yearning. girls b girls
when they rechristen
in mulch, bogwater,
a new name & worship
pain as a teacher
& worship the knifed
cold of february
air as carving tool
worship the full
sentence: no
Tara Labovich (they/them) is a lecturer of English and Creative Writing. Their multigenre creative work explores questions of queerness, survivorship, and multicultural upbringing. Their work has been published with Salt Hill, the Citron Review, and more, and awarded prizes such as the Pearl Hogrefe Award for Creative Writing and the Adelaide Bender Reville Prize in Nonfiction. You can find them walking their dog, Finn, in the rare forests of Iowa. IG and X: @taralabovich