Alexandria Valentine
Alexandria Valentine is southern-of-center writer and editor based in Chicago. They hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an Emphasis in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Columbia University School of the Arts, where they were awarded the 2019 Felipe De Alba Fellowship. An alum of the Kenyon Review and Tin House workshops, Valentine’s work has appeared in South 85 Journal and Arkana Magazine.
Hannah's Elegy
O, Hannah, hung like an ornament
before a peculiar garden of eyes What do men know of justice? is there any sorrow like this sorrow? neck bent like a twig
a dark child made spectacle? no tenderness
our Blackness is a stone in the throat of men a throat of weeds
our Blackness is our inheritance men who eat their own eyes
Hannah, fly away on wings of mercy
Hannah, they eat their own eyes you are going where children shine golden their mouths are wicked briars
yes, you are going to a place you are going to a place
where the light is forever where there is no sorrow
forever