Anna Keller

Issue One, Student

Anonymity

Tufts of airy gossip

inflated with unsolicited opinions 

of oversized waist lines

and poorly performed 

liquor-tinted soliloquies

tumble my way. 

While duck boots wade 

through puddles of rain 

to overcooked supper

wide, toothy grins

smear across plush, apple cheeks

smitten by the sunset. 

There will always be another

(But never this one). 

Never this day

Never this meal 

(I always stutter when Grandpa asks me to say Blessing) 

Years have flown by

and I still somehow want 

to stand next to these

Manhattan Elites

who cannot remember names

but are the first to point 

when someone wears a skirt

on eve of the first frost.


Reckless Abandonment

Bells ripple through the basilica

I squint at pigments of emerald

I breathe in aging oak 

and old, rotting altar-serving robes.

Candle wax cascades like a river

And glory, I forgot a hair tie. 

When do we break bread again? 

Giving basket floats by, I look. 

One day I’ll pray for others. 

Time melts like butter through my fingers. 

Lately sermons churn my organs

like the batter of a country-style omelet. 

I pack nothing and leave and 

years later, 

I knock on His door in the hurling snow, 

“Let me in. I’m cold.”

About Anna Keller
I'm a junior at Saint Mary's College majoring in creative writing. I'm from Nashville, TN. Writing is my passion, and it has been something I have always enjoyed since I was a little girl. I used to carry notebooks around and fill them up with stories. My friend and I had vivid imaginations, and we would write stories based on what we came up with while we played. Creative writing is my joy, and I aspire to someday teach writing workshops and English classes at a community college. Some of my hobbies besides writing are reading, hiking and camping. Some of my favorite genres are dystopia, thriller, sci-fi, and romance. Before Nashville, I lived in Southern California, and I love the ocean. I'm passionate about sea life and the environment in general.