25
By Jon Raimon
when little and so
peach haired, I
palmed
my daughter. she
rollicked and painted
her way in
to and out of
messes. ones on the in-
side and those I tidied
on the worn floor so I wouldn’t
holler when stepping, again
and again, on
the magic of madeyed wolves, of
calming cleareyed mermaids
who visited even when the moon
waned. moons and oceans later
her hair strawberrying, her
magic a quarter century strong and
muted by rent due
by texts lost to fools
who only picture
order and distance and danger
in her evening undertow
failing to feel her wind-
swept playful ways, her swirls
and thundering seals. and her
words even especially
the quiet ones
Jon Raimon (he/him) teaches writing in Ithaca, NY. His work explores grief, family, resistance, and all forms of love. He is part of Spring Writes, Ithaca’s literary festival, and his work appeared in Haikuniverse, Quasar Review, Wilderness, and will soon be featured in Trampoline: A Journal of Poetry and The Bluebird Word.
Artwork Source: “Depth of Mind,” 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 