mineral lit mag
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  • Masthead
  • Featured Poets Series
    • 3 poems by Chris Prewitt
    • 3 poems by Taylor Byas
    • 3 Poems by David Hanlon
    • 3 poems by Bailey Grey
    • 2 Poems by Seán Griffin
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 1.5: Hozier-inspired
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3: Recovery
    • Issue 3.5: Lana Del Rey
    • Special Summer Solstice Prose Issue
    • Issue 4.1
    • Issue 4.2
    • Still Standing
  • Home
  • About/Submissions
  • Masthead
  • Featured Poets Series
    • 3 poems by Chris Prewitt
    • 3 poems by Taylor Byas
    • 3 Poems by David Hanlon
    • 3 poems by Bailey Grey
    • 2 Poems by Seán Griffin
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 1.5: Hozier-inspired
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3: Recovery
    • Issue 3.5: Lana Del Rey
    • Special Summer Solstice Prose Issue
    • Issue 4.1
    • Issue 4.2
    • Still Standing
The Velveteen Girl
 
Still not used to the heat at midnight
I walk down Flamingo, the phone on my hip
playing “Cowgirl in the Sand.” I tombé
pas de bourrée and then I am dancing,
the empty street
safer than you ever were.
 
I rent a U-Haul, I crisscross the valley 
picking up furniture. I flirt to rent an apartment
in North Vegas on a Saturday. 
I bought myself a year.
 
The bartender has platinum blonde hair,
the bartender is me in another life and
the taps are golden hands pouring 
my favorite grapefruit hefeweizen. 
 
I leave the bar but I don’t go home. 
I walk toward the Strip,
I walk toward the canyon.
I find an old railroad car,
a cat in the garden underneath.
When I hop the fence
I don’t land. 
 
Because leaving you
feels like
levitation.


Kaylyssa Quinn lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied English Literature at Queens University of Charlotte and currently attends a made-up, DIY MFA program called Tuesday University. Her poems have been published in Capsule Stories, tinywords, Furious Season, Six Sentences, and in partnership with Hades Wool. She can be found online @kaylyssa 
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