Read Two Poems by Leigh Lucas, “Art Monster” and “These Days”
From the Collection Splashed Things
“Art Monster”
Not to preserve him exactly.
Not to forget. Eye pits, no eyes.
Maybe the aim is just to come out from living in this room between he
and not-he.
A room on which I have, with my ugly guts and my sheer grit, built some
additions: vestibules and outdoor seating, a series of public spaces with
upholstered furniture, a basket of red ripe tomatoes (for throwing),
attached to even more private spaces, nooks and passageways with all
manner of intimacy gradients.
Would it have been better to write a letter and bury it in a drawer. Would
it have been better to whisper this story somewhere dark and wet and
anonymous. I’d keep wondering but it makes me mean.
My wish by making this: may we all be happy without hope. Just today, its
bloom, no promises.
*
“These Days”
I live in a home looking over the bay with a beautiful man and a beautiful
baby. We named her Penelope. It means woman with a web on her face
but it also means weaver.
The beautiful man’s arm makes a little shelf for her to sit. We are audience
for her joy.
She scrunches her face at the sensation of his scruff on her perfect skin. Her
abundant belly presses his shoulder in a second sort of kiss.
She is so much more than our proof of survival,
proof we’ve already received the answers, most.
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From Splashed Things. Used with the permission of the publisher, Boa Editions. Copyright © 2026 by Leigh Lucas
Leigh Lucas
Leigh Lucas is a writer in San Francisco. Her poetry collection Splashed Things was selected by Maya C. Popa for the A. Poulin Jr. Prize from Boa Editions and will be published spring 2026. Her chapbook Landsickness (Tupelo Press, 2024) was selected by Chen Chen for the 2023 Sunken Garden Poetry Chapbook Award. Leigh’s writing can be found in Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Adroit, Poetry Society of America, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Stanford and an MFA from Warren Wilson.
