Because I Don’t Have Spotify Premium
By Maria Giesbrecht
I listen to Hozier on YouTube, and I let the next song play
and the next one after that, and it eventually always starts
playing The Fray. All of a sudden, it’s bedtime; I’m in a red
baby doll top, drinking wine that warms my throat like the
palm of a man I should forget, writing poems about flirting
with God (which is really just living— there’s no difference)
and you found me, you found me lyin' on the floor surrounded
starts playing. It takes one verse until I remember what it
feels like to worship— to fly so close to God our chests
bump midair. To feel like the entire church could become a
bloody mess if my sternum doesn’t get it together. For one
song, God and I, we’re together again, cutting up the dance
floor of my soul. We sway until my feet are bleeding, until a
Coldplay song comes on and saves me.
Maria Giesbrecht (she/her) is a Canadian poet whose writings explore her Mexican and Mennonite roots. Her work has previously been published in Contemporary Verse 2, Talon Review, and is forthcoming in Queen’s Quarterly and Canadian Literature. She is the runner-up for the 2022 Eden Mills Poetry Contest and a graduate of the post-graduate Creative Writing program at Humber College. Maria is the founder and host of the writing table, Gather, and spends her days nurturing creative folks to write urgently and unafraid.
Artwork Source: “Pimento,” Susan Barry-Schulz
Artist Statement: 9″ x 12″ collage on canvas (1963 LIFE magazine, vintage National Geographic, old and new magazine and catalogue scraps)
Susan Barry-Schulz (she/hers) is a disabled physical therapist and poet/visual artist who grew up just outside of Buffalo, NY. Her work has been nominated for both Best of the Net and Pushcart Prizes and has appeared in Rust & Moth, SoFloPoJo, SWWIM, Heron Tree, Bending Genres, Leon Literary Review, Quartet, West Trestle Review, The Westchester Review and in many other print and online journals and anthologies.
The Turning Leaf Journal 