Englewood pulls me when I’m most fractured.
Frogtown was home for seventeen years before moving away;
Infrequent visits thereafter made the heart mourn.
The ghost of a girl (who grew into a man) boasts
Of their agates to mask loneliness. A man walks
With the ghost and boasts the names of famous
Central High graduates (to mask how close the man
Came to death by their own hand). At Snelling
Avenue station, they mimic the old Saint Paul
Saints announcer as the train arrives. I cannot
Join them; fractures can’t heal while searching
For a long-term home.
Poem: LUCAS SCHEELK is a white, autistic, trans, queer-identified poet from the Twin Cities now living in Washington. Lucas uses they/them pronouns. They are the author of This Is A Clothespin (Damaged Goods Press, 2016) and Holmes Is A Person As Is (self-published, 2016). Lucas has poems featured in Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2019). You can find Lucas on Facebook at lucasscheelk and on Twitter @TC221Bee.
Art: JUSTIN TERLECKI is an artist living and working in Saint Paul. Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, he exhibits his work regularly in the Twin Cities and is represented by Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis. He is the recipient of a Jerome Fellowship for Emerging Printmakers, which funded a series of prints inspired by his travels to India and Spain. His work appears in the permanent collection of the McDonough Museum of Art in Youngstown. Justin lives in the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative.
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