Tell her. Watch her face
drain until she’s nothing
but a mangled star, dammed
light. She didn’t raise you
like this. She doesn’t know
the tenderness of being
a mirror along a lake’s calm.
Blue into blue into blue.
Mickie Kennedy is a gay writer who resides in Baltimore County, Maryland. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY, The Threepenny Review, The Southern Review, The Sun and elsewhere. His first book of poetry Worth Burning will be published by Black Lawrence Press in February 2026. Follow him on Twitter/X @MickiePoet or his website mickiekennedy.com.