Dear stranger staring at the sun

Dear stranger staring at the sun like it can make your wrinkles

go away     your pain evaporate    snail slime clogged toilet

desperation.    i wish it would   for the record   go away

grey-suited and red    too calm to be so calm.    i wish i could

sing    a different song by now, any song.   i really thought

i would for another slug or two   rip the inner snake out

of the outer. O captivated cousin    i wish i could.

Dear stranger staring at the sun like it can ake your wrinkles

go away     your pain evaporate    snail slime clogged toilet

desperation .    i wish it would   for the record   go away

grey-suited and red    too calm to be so calm.    i wish i could

sing    a different song by now, any song.   i really thought

i would for another slug or two   rip the inner snake outof the outer. O captivated cousin    i wish i could.

of the outer. O captivated cousin    i wish i could.

bio

Allie Rigby is a poet with roots in the chaparral and deserts of Southern California. She is the author of Moonscape for a Child (Bored Wolves, 2024) and the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Romania. Writing honors include a William Dickey Fellowship, a contribution to Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a contribution to the Poetry Program at Community of Writers, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and a Best of the Net nomination. Her poetry appears on NPR’s Living on Earth Radio, WFIU’s The Poet’s Weave, Equatorial Literary Magazine, Parentheses Journal, Manzano Mountain Review, and more. She has a master’s degree in English: Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and has taught creative writing for Ovidius University, Point Reyes Institute, The Loft Literary Center, and the US-Romanian Embassy. She’s an editor for The SEEfest Review and the curator behind Living Poetry.