by Amanda McLeod
Richland Library Main
On Tuesday, water flows from the skylight
over the escalators on Assembly Street.
You call home. Betel palms and
fig trees reach for the glass, turning
the leaves of the romances.
From the computer chairs rises musk,
rises mist. A fawn trips
on tilted hooves between the shelves
of the poetry section.
Sophie Farthing (she/her) is a queer poet and artist living in South Carolina in the USA. Her work has appeared in outlets including Right Hand Pointing, Impossible Archetype, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Oyster River Pages. She is the 2024 winner of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Poetry from the South Carolina Academy of Authors and a recipient of the SC Arts Commission Emerging Artist Grant, which is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Instagram: @sophiemfarthing Carrd: sophiemfarthing.carrd.co
Amanda McLeod writes about nature, culture, and other things that keep her daydreaming or awake in the night. Sometimes she makes art as well. Her work has been published extensively, most recently in the anthology Offerings from Comma Press. Catch her on the socials @AmandaMWrites, at her website amandamcleodwrites.com, or sprawled on the banks of the nearest river.