THE GALAXY

The world is full of you & me & them: each of us a tender wilderness, each of us a ravine. Our bodies bend to be whatever it is that makes the field stay aflame, that makes the deer continue to nudge the backs of our knees, that makes our faces inscrutable. Our mouths keep locking. Our skins keep blinking. You explore the edges of everything, your fingers always prodding. Most nights I lay awake with my eyes closed, waiting for you to exhaust yourself, for the sky to end, for anything to ever be enough. 

J RIVER HELMS

J River Helms (they/them) has published poetry and prose in Bluestem Magazine, Copper Nickel, DIAGRAM, Fairy Tale Review, New England Review, Phoebe Journal, Redivider, and Sonora Review, among other places. Machines Like Us, their first collection of poetry, was published by Dzanc Books in 2016. J has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and lives in Houston, Texas with their partner.