by Matthew Magill
"I'm up here dreaming of the mischief we'll make"
Our runner-up piece for the second poetry competition, ENDLESS SKY, is Emily Cotman's meet me in the jet stream. We chose this piece for its uniquely playful take on themes of death and the afterlife. Cotman weaves the two together with vernacular language and whimsical formatting, creating a braid of technique as delicate as a contrail. You can read the full piece below:
Related: Some other Radical Art Review shit
meet me in the jet stream
love, when your day comes
I’m up here dreaming of
the mischief we’ll make
you and me, two bits
of a boundless breeze
rally the clouds into rude shapes
above the country club (you’ve
always had a knack for organizing)
lift the kite of every skint kid
killing time in a scrubby field (betcha
we could keep their eyes off the cans)
rest our orbitals
together again
and sink, so chill
we awaken a seed (and now
would you look what we’ve done?)
Emily Cotman (she/they) writes in the margins of the workweek and dabbles in reanimating the dead. Drawing on her history as a science museum educator, her current work revolves around wonder and connection. Emily's words have found loving homes with Lumpen, Zero Readers, The Madrigal, and Rough Trade Books, among others. She lives gratefully on unceded Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ land. Find her on Twitter and Instagram under @emilycotman.