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  • Writer's pictureMarías at Sampaguitas

Poetry by Grace Beilstein

suburban square dance


never have i relished grocery trips quite like this:

the suburban dads in heavy plaid polo,

khaki shorts with more pockets than

any one human could ever need.

i breath just a little heavier through

the bandana i got what feels like

a lifetime ago,

Go Texan Day —

it’s funny how it reminds me

of what we’re doing right now,

all standing together,

a rigid six feet apart.

we go through the motions

of do-si-do,

side-step the wandering stranger,

we keep our feet moving so we don’t fall,

God forbid

we let our minds grapple with the new reality

we’re only starting to realize.

Forgive me —

starting to think

God has nothing to do with it.


i just want to hug them —

throw our phones into the river,

let it consume the thoughts,

the regrets of all the morbid lasts

i still remember from

the last Thursday

of Normal.


everyone telling us the ‘young people’ are selfish —

risking their parents, their Nana’s lives

(the people who raised them, they add)

for some momentary gratification,

some trivial nonsense of existing

before financial independence.

Yes — I’ll let these months slip through

my fingers like sand from that beach

we sat on together in January,

thinking the air couldn’t be crisper,

we couldn’t ever feel more alive.

to see my mother smile,

shoulders relaxed, knowing the worst is

over:

I’d give my life for that.

It’s the memories that keep us alive

when the sensations are just a little duller,

the dreams that shake us into realizing

there’s still life out there

to devour,

sunshine yet to be basked in.


join me in the kitchen some night,

when the streetlights give out to

exhaustion, sigh in the darkness

and square dance

like we used to,

until the thoughts wash away

and all that’s left is laughter,

rolling through us like what I remember

living feels like.





Grace Beilstein is a sophomore at The Kinkaid School in Houston, Texas. She writes flash fiction, poetry, and prose. She is one of three main editors of her school's award-winning literary magazine "Falcon Wings."

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