iōLit
  • Who we are
    • In Support of Black Lives and Voices: How You Can Help
    • Book Reviews
    • Love Yourshelf
    • Reading Night 2019
  • Submit
  • Issues
    • Volume 1
    • Volume 2 >
      • Featured Artist_Mia
    • Tales From Six Feet Apart >
      • Featured Artist_Ariane
    • Volume 3 >
      • Featured Artist_Jiesha
  • Online Publication
  • Editing Service
  • Store
  • Subscribe
  • More
    • Contact us

Home Town

Poetry by Alissa Hull

You tend to be flat,
like if you can see forever
             into the horizon
             field trees, field square,
             u-haul sign, deer blind,
you think you know everything.

I’m sorry I never write, but
             what do I have to say?
Your world kills people like me?
Police factory farm suicide military;
are all our thieves praised as tragic heroes?

I take sleeping pills,
             drown you out,
and lie about where I’m from.

But I still see you
hurtling by, intersections
             with only stop signs,
and know you better than most
and what you whisper about
me and the rest of the world.

But it makes you lead-footed
             unable to move
             shiftless, content to
             stare at the line of trees
             at the edge of the field
             in the distance

and call this home.

About the writer
Picture
Alissa is currently a human rights lawyer for incarcerated people. As a queer woman from rural Michigan, she has spent a lot of time traveling, trying to find a place to call home, and paying tribute to those who didn't make it. She was a part of several self-publishing collaborations, and was a member of a collective that founded a harm-reduction group for street based youth in the sex trade and street economies in Chicago. She currently lives in Upstate New York.
Picture

Home

Submit
Privacy Policy
Author's Rights/Terms of Agreement

Editing Service Terms and Conditions

Read​ with us

​Goodreads

Publications

Issues
Refractions

Support us

Instagram
Twitter
Donate
© COPYRIGHT 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Who we are
    • In Support of Black Lives and Voices: How You Can Help
    • Book Reviews
    • Love Yourshelf
    • Reading Night 2019
  • Submit
  • Issues
    • Volume 1
    • Volume 2 >
      • Featured Artist_Mia
    • Tales From Six Feet Apart >
      • Featured Artist_Ariane
    • Volume 3 >
      • Featured Artist_Jiesha
  • Online Publication
  • Editing Service
  • Store
  • Subscribe
  • More
    • Contact us