[ Issue #2 ]

Are You Awake?

by Lyndsie Conklin

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My uncomfortable body
begins to disdain my heartbeat

echoing through my pillow

while my eyes dry
with glaring wishes
for them to keep shut.
The streetlights seep
onto the portraits
still on the dark walls
and brake lights glimmer
a new color in a quick pass by.

In unyielding thoughts
a small memory of you grows-

smiling, gleaming, and wishing

for the secret retorts
to manifest beyond your lips.

How precious this memory.

How distant it seems.

Attempting to quell
the overwhelm of you,
I wait for more red hues
to creep through my window.

Yet in an unexplainable hum,
a message of rhyming thoughts

builds a foundation
for manifesting words.
“Are you awake?”
It began.

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Lyndsie Conklin (she/her) is a Montanan transplanted to Colorado, living with her husband and cat, Beans. She enjoys getting outside, being a cat mom, breakfast foods, Diet Coke, and (of course) writing poetry and erotic fiction. Lyndsie attempts to find romance, beauty, and darkness hidden within the little things while highlighting these little, gross beauties within complex, current topics, such as mental health and LGBTQ+ and women’s issues. Lyndsie holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Western Colorado University and a Masters of Education in Higher Education Administration from Post University. Some of her work has been featured in Soupcan Magazine, The Sleeve Magazine, and Dreamer by Night Magazine.

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