swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

grasp for meaning
G. Gazelka

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Untitled

winter lingers
in ice thaw
shards against pavement
and it’s a quiet discovery
of clear space
jostling with transition
the aftermath
of revelation
of mortality
a sharp
cold snap
in the midst
of spring
settling
into
the inevitable
no
longer
blooming
which
side pierced
my life with
responsibility
to fewer
articles
less
possessive
nouns
and punctuation

Untitled

Embody shirtless
in the chair
writing
the body is political
is the artist

Untitled

In the quiet of the night,
I clutch to shadows,
fill dark spaces,
listen to the hushed whisper
of the crickets’ song—
it’s magic, isn’t it?

On a Slow Jog

Wake the dawn
WOOD
Inhale deeply
WOOD
Little gasping breaths
Scent of pine
WOOD
I slow
grasp for meaning
in memory
The trickling of the creek
grows louder in my ears
clearing away all that fuzz
PRESENT
CENTERED
all that is left isn’t just
a memory

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G. Gazelka has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Their poetry has recently been featured in Avalon Anthology and Rockvale Review. They received Honorable Mentions for their work from the League of Minnesota Poets for the Trans and NonBinary Award and Keith Gann LGBTQ Award in 2022 and the John Rezmerski Memorial Manuscript Competition in 2023. Currently, they reside on the traditional homelands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples, commonly known as Minneapolis, and work at the nearby community colleges.