Three Poems by Janelle Cordero

you’re looking at a picture of you

say you’re looking at a picture of you with a group of other people who / do you look at first yourself or / the other people say / you’re a parent and you have a picture of

your child who / do you look at first your child or the you within / your child

maybe / god looks at us in the same way trying to see / only himself /

many types of wildflowers

i believe in my religion the same way i believe / in all religions like a child trying / to make sense of the many types of wildflowers in a field and deciding / they are all

the same because / they are all alive /

the phone book

the phone book used to be validation for our existence are you / listed we would ask

each other and the unlisted / were like ghosts we couldn’t understand why anyone /

wouldn’t want their name and their number alongside all / those other names and

numbers can we have meaning / beyond our connection to others here’s the real /

question if we leave no evidence of ourselves is the world / better for it /

Janelle Cordero is an interdisciplinary artist and educator living in the seventh most hipster city in the U.S. Both her writing and her paintings are sparse narratives that emphasize the disconnected nature of the human condition. Her writing has been published in dozens of literary journals, including Harpur Palate and The Louisville Review, while her paintings have been featured in venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. Her debut poetry collection, Two Cups of Tomatoes, was published in 2015, and her chapbook with Black Sand Press was published in 2018. Her newest chapbook with Bottlecap Press was published in January of 2019. Stay connected with Janelle’s work at www.janellecordero.com.