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.
