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issue 2: ROAD TRIP

love song for the
trip i didn't take

KYLIE MARTIN
Gas station bathroom stall, I’m sure your walls sang with Sharpie marks, and I need you to know that I really did want to listen.
Passenger’s seat window, I would have rolled you down and let the wind tangle my hair.
Aux cord, I have a hundred pop song playlists, and I would have sung along.
Scenery, I’m sure you were rolling and green, and I hope you haven’t waited too long for a poet to write in your honor.
My friends, it’s not that I didn’t want to go, I’m just agoraphobic.
My friends, I need you to know that I’m tethered to home, and every step I take outside tightens the chain around my throat.
My friends, I’m sorry. Play me the echoes when you come home.

Kylie Martin has a BA in Literature from Ohio Northern University. She lives, works, and studies in Findlay, Ohio. Be nice to her on Twitter (@abstrusermusing).
perhappened mag
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header photo: tucker macdonald (unsplash)
issue 3: HEATWAVE    next issue →

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  • the mag
    • the issues
    • submit to the mag
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      • CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO HELL
      • body in motion
      • sun of daedalus / song of anticlea
    • submit to the press
  • support us