by Sarah Brockhaus
Girl Night
Today the body is
just a word I made up
in my sleep:
a dream I almost wake
remembering, the sheen stumbling
away until I don’t make
sense: mind a mountain of images and I
can’t identify a single object. Like this, pain
distorts body until I can’t
decipher leg from back from stomach, no
specificity left in me. These nights I drink
water just to have something to bring
back up: the body betrays, refuses to hold
what it needs. When the dream
returns it is distanced, un-
defined: a woman plucking the strings of a harp;
no, a woman bent over me; woman; woman’s
hands plucking plucking plucking; ovaries,
uterus, fallopian tubes pulled like peaches
from me; mulberries over ripe
from the backyard tree; dark stain
on womanhands ; girlhands ; hungryhands. I make
believe I am dying. I make believe I am
praying. Pain is begging and I am
on my knees, trying to undo
my hipbones, replace them with soft plummed fruit.
Poet Sarah Brockhaus (she/her) is an MFA student at Louisiana State University and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Salisbury University. She is a co-editor of The Shore Poetry. Her work has been nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. Her poems are published or forthcoming in North American Review, American Literary Review, The Greensboro Review, Permafrost and elsewhere. You can follow her on Bluesky: http://scbrock.bsky.social/.
Artist Asem Moustafa Ahmed (he/him) is a New Jersey-based artist specializing in painting, portraiture, and figure drawing, with additional interests in sculpture, printmaking, and jewelry-making. Born in Marrakech, Morocco, and of Egyptian heritage, Asem moved to Jersey City at the age of nine. Immersed in the vibrant visual cultures of North Africa and inspired by the diversity of his new home, he developed a deep passion for art from an early age. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later earned his Master’s degree from the New York Academy of Art, studying under artists such as Dan Thompson, Mario A. Robinson, and Randolphlee McIver. Asem now works from his studio, creating richly textured and expressive works that celebrate the color, form, and spirit of the world around him. You can find more of his work on his website: http://www.asemfineart.com/.
Gulf Stream Magazine 