Hot Pot Magazine

By Liam Strong

they wanted ur clarity                looked up 
@ the willows     birches            defeathered & disgorged
puttied rain of pear                    tongue & butter
u could have hated                    them @ their
darkest
we wore flannel like                   the back of our lungs
where’s the kombucha                                 between us
alexis              elle
oren                                           ?
where’s that sting         ?           u left
the arrangements untouched    the couch
creaking           pillows only       thrown out
of the way                                  the garbage can
its busted foot    puffed lips       there in the corner
maybe u found fulfillment          in emptying
a place               but isn’t it        hard
to forget about bones               & walls when
every ghost has a shape           they doubted once
that an oven flame could          burn this place
down                                         a fire needs
a oxidizing agent         a breathing mask    a ceiling
over its head                             u gave it all
u could

Liam Strong (they/them) is a queer neurodivergent cottagecore straight edge punk writer who
has earned their B.A. in writing from University of Wisconsin-Superior. They are the author of
the chapbook everyone's left the hometown show (Bottlecap Press, 2023). You can find their
poetry and essays in Impossible Archetype and Emerald City, among several others. They are
most likely gardening and listening to Bitter Truth somewhere in Northern Michigan.