At Night in Brighton Ma by Sterling-Elizabeth Arcadia

take your eyes out

and put them in a box

make sure the inside of the box is

all blacked out

even a little light pollution

makes the scene hard to see

pick the highest hill nearby

(you should have chosen this before you plucked your eyes)

and in that lofty neighborhood

makeshift strap your eyebox to your back

shimmy up the top-most lamppost

to the same side of the lights as the constellations

(opposite the rest of brighton

and your inescapable roommates)

once there carefully un-black your eyebox

paper over each beaming sequin

every shining glare

below where you perch

then cut holes in your eyebox

careful not to prick your eyes

(whose pupils have grown so expansive

lusting for the midnight sky

hurting them is not the goal

with the holes in your eyebox)

stand tall and balance well

raise your eyebox

open your tongue

and yell for the stars

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Sterling-Elizabeth Arcadia (she/they) is a trans poet and diy tattooer in washington dc, where she watches birds and cares for her cats. she is currently working on a chapbook of queer ekphrastic love poems based on her friends’ instagram posts. her work has been published in Stone of Madness Press and Fuck Your Dreams Zine, and is forthcoming elsewhere.