On My 28th Birthday
By Ashley Kirkland
A few of us drove out
to Hocking Hills
to see the waterfalls
and hike single-file
around Conkle’s Hollow
in the early morning
fog before the crowds
gathered. Your dad asked
Jon to stop smoking
in the car, said it gave me
headaches, but it was because
you were with us. I shared a tent
with Mary that night, rested
my hand on my abdomen–
my secret. In the gray morning
we woke early, spoke softly
in the tent, remained cocooned
in our sleeping bags as long
as possible against the chilled
air, listened to the bugs
and the quiet. I wanted to tell
her, but I couldn’t. It was too
early. We whispered about
our plans for the day, what
trails to hike before we left
for home. We walked down
the cool path behind
the campsite, walked the numb
out of our toes. When we
got to Old Man’s Cave
we were the only ones
there. The rocks were dark
and damp with dew
from the night. We walked
over the rock bridge
covered in moss. A small,
clear creek ran
below. We posed for photos
among the trees and rocks
and you were there all along.
Ashley Kirkland (she/her) writes in Ohio where she lives with her husband and sons. Her work can be found in Cordella Press, Boats Against the Current, The Citron Review, Naugatuck River Review, ONE ART, HAD, Major7thMagazine, among others, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her chapbook, BRUISED MOTHER, is available from Boats Against the Current. She is a poetry editor for 3Elements Literary Review. You can find her at lashleykirklandwriter on Instagram.
Artwork Source: “To Pieces in the Middle,” allison anne
Artist Statement: Collage is a site of expansiveness and change, part of a creative ecosystem of transformative mediums that rethink how art can be shared. It reframes and pushes against capitalist ideas of ‘value’ while exploring different avenues of community-building and exchange. There’s an element of collage that has always felt inherently queer — remaking and restructuring, collaborating with the very world around us.
My personal creative practice is primarily abstract, shaped by my experience and identity as a fat, queer, white, nonbinary person. American culture is not singular, nor is it a monolith — surrounded by layers of paper, fingers sticky from adhesive, drawing on my background in sociology, cultural studies and gender studies, I find myself asking questions — what do we value, and how do we represent it? What do we leave behind, and what is changing as we look ahead? Collage offers a chance to further interrogate, reclaim and broaden our perspectives.
allison anne is a queer, nonbinary multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (unceded Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land), working in collage, zinemaking, mail art, book art, design & publishing. By recontextualizing images and materials, allison seeks to create complex textural, intuitive abstractions and configurations which prioritize that which is found, discarded and left behind, exploring the intersections & interactions between context, materiality and creativity. They co-founded the projects Twin Cities Collage Collective and NONMACHINABLE, which connect and publish artists & creatives locally and around the world. Connect with them at allisonanne.com or on Instagram at @allisonannecollage.
The Turning Leaf Journal 