outlier
Melanie Robinson
there’s a hole above my belly button where it
was pierced & adorned in a high school bathroom
love favors the bold not the clever says the TikTok
philosopher dressed like Santa for some reason
he wants his audience to risk it all in favor
of transparency like we don’t fear Truth or
Consequences New Mexico & the monarchs
we killed to get there their golden wings stuck
to the windshield in the cool wind of autumn
the impressionist painting is described as carnal
but I don’t see it—there is a woman in a vintage hat
swinging outside a one-story home in what I
imagine to be Long Island no doubt named
after a flowering plant in the legume family
treading water is necessary for those of us
who knock on wood for protection
As a poet, writer, educator and owner of a small content writing business, every aspect of Mel’s work—both creative and professional—is steeped in a reverence for communication. She holds an MFA in poetry from Texas State University and was the 2019-2020 Poet in Resident at the Clark House in Smithville, Texas. She has been published by Rust + Moth, Radar, Roanoke Review, Hot Pink Magazine, Hooligan Magazine, Barren Magazine, Burning House Press, The Boiler, and more. She was also a commissioned, featured artist for Luminaria: San Antonio Arts Festival in 2017. She now lives in Los Angeles as a working writer.