griffin epstein

griffin epstein is a non-binary white settler from NYC (Lenape land) working in education, community-based research and mental health in Tkaronto (Dish with One Spoon/Treaty 13). Their poetry has appeared in Grain Magazine, The Maynard, Plenitude Magazine, Rkvry Quarterly Literary Journal, and Frond Literary. Griffin plays music in SPOILS and makes weird video games with shrunken studios.

be something else for awhile

a fish or a bed
the thick yellow coating on a tire swing chain
cedars somewhere
grains of sand

be children
shaking off “bossy” before
it becomes an accusation
horse paraphernalia
and jelly shoes
be the perfect spill-round belly
before the little girl learns
to call it something else

be cigarettes
gifted by broke friends
who plan ahead only long enough
to think about refrigerating leftover tea for tomorrow
because that’s a place we can imagine drinking
iced tea

be the haphazard animals invented in dreams
the furby in the trees, the thing we’re calling
a beaver

be anything
a car window with terrible decals
truck nuts swinging on the road
be the road itself
smooth as ice cream under the peel back tab

give your soul a break
be slow and quiet
the steam rising from the bread
from the oven
from your own good for something
hands