Poems by Kenzie Allen

by Kenzie Allen Determination of Racial Affinity A shapely nasal spline, rounded maxilla and that flick of a scalloped incisor, this one is Asian (in all likelihood). We can’t be certain when only bone remains, but compare ulnar length, mandibular jut, these caveats of origin. Mongoloid, Caucasoid, alternate morphs for sun-soak, overcast, sweet tilt of the sockets the way Draw Girls Around The World explained ethnic realism. Make her lips large and full, give her beautiful hips and tiny shoulders define her muscle thus. They don’t say it starts in the skeleton, in fragments of fragments and the .002 gram that could be user error or could mean your ancestors sent you down the river in a basket, nothing mentions variability and how every time you look at that skull of hers it changes, how you can’t pull off your own skin and ask your body questions. Foundational Alabaster, Porcelain, Ivoire, Light Porcelain, Light Ivory, Light Ecru, Fawn, Classic Ivory, Soft Ivory, Ivory Beige, Warm, Fair, Fair Medium, Toast, Olive, Tan, Natural, Natural Beige, Natural Buff, Pure Beige, Warm Ivory, Nude, Fresh Beige, Buff Beige, Shell Beige, Creamy Natural, Light Delicate Beige, Medium Peach, Medium Sand, Medium Almond, Buff Medium,...
Read More

Russell Walker, by Daniel Lanza Rivers

  Russell Walker Daniel Lanza Rivers   When I remember Russell Walker, I remember him in sounds.   The tsk tsk tsk’s that escaped his lips when he was bored, and the percussion of his fingers against the countertop.   The roar of wind that filled his car as we spent that summer hunting for water—in pools and lakes, and rivers snaking inland from the coast.   The creak of his bed as he craned over the edge with sleep in his eyes to ask about my dreams.   The snap of his father’s voice, the night he caught us together in the basement and called Russell by his brother’s name.   The quiet that overtook him sometimes, like the rest of the world hung at the far end of a long corridor.   DANIEL LANZA RIVERS is a PhD student in English and Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University, where his research explores the relationship between landscape and utopia in twentieth-century North American literature and social movements. His writing has also appeared in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Connu, and Women’s Studies: an Interdisciplinary Journal.