Giulia Bencivenga

Issue One

When a Poem is Not a Poem

There are many ways to say something that is true, but only one

Will be true. The approximation to reality is but one facet of the clause,

The 

Statement

Must encompass a world that is beautiful

Take for example that there should be no 

Reason for the world

Then say you know of an emptiness

That can’t be filled up

Does the thought lead to a maturation

A saturation 

Of meaning

Do the windows open themselves?


ECOSYSTEMS OF MATERIALITY

No, I don’t have time

For interiority,

Only the shape of space

Predicated by a barrage of mirrors.

I forged the days of bliss by closing my eyes.

Between my legs, a spark

Unquantifiable by location.

Tonight, I hid it.

Dawned the dress my mother used

To go grocery shopping in.

I am going to the store daily now

So I can remember where to put the stone fruit,

Press the peach to attest to its ripeness 

In honor of dress.

What do you think of this dress?

My mother used it to go grocery shopping

My mother.

About Giulia Bencivenga
Giulia Bencivenga is the author of GIULIA BENCIVENGA IS A MANIAC (Inpatient Press), Unreasonable Whole (Gauss PDF), and CUD (nueoi). She runs the monthly reading series Two Snake in Los Angeles (@twosnakela). Their work also appears in Peach Mag, Shit Wonder, and Blush Lit, and other places.