Self-Erasure: The Head of Antoinette

I walked in grief’s tenure,

embedded in the details of fear.


Human networks communicate

every piece of your story—


the(ir) limitations scaffold

your bright touch.

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Jessica Q. Stark is the author of Buffalo Girl (BOA Editions, 2023), winner of a Florida Book Award, Savage Pageant (Birds, LLC, 2020), and four poetry chapbooks, including INNANET (The Offending Adam, 2021). Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Pleaides, Sixth Finch, The Boiler, and The Southeast Review, among others. She is a Poetry Editor for AGNI and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Florida.