Lizard on the way to our thrift store not on the corner but close he is green as usual and friendly to our pink curiosity that wants forever to watch his scaly slither sweeten the bars of his petshop enclosure Matt wants to go inside I say they get enough of that already even though we both want to witness a little more of that quiet mouth licking wide eyes we imagine smiling back at us to comfort the wanting I say we will see him on our way back it’s a lie because we walk ahead to Western station I realize after we’re home and I don’t cry but I imagine the sound of his small animal heart breaking in two What Occurred Inside Our Bodies After Dad Asked If We Knew He Worked Hard Maybe we would come out of this moment imagining him as a warm baby or wishing to sit a little closer to the father-shaped dents which are an artistic interpretation of those nine hour shifts but we don’t and maybe we did know somewhere underneath skin (that forgiving flesh) but even deeper below the ignorance or in other words our stomachs our rib cages or the empty space where our hearts should be maybe we just did not care
About the Author Mole Hart is a poet and ongoing student at Columbia College Chicago where she pursues a BA in Creative Writing. Her work is forthcoming in Allium, A Journal of Poetry and Prose and has won the 2022 Eileen Lannan poetry contest. An animal lover and PB&J enthusiast, she enjoys spending time with her family in Ohio, along with her 11 cats and turtle. About the Artist Christina Benavides is a self-taught artist, with an aficionado in storytelling, she decided to mix her hobby with her passion to become an independent comic writer and illustrator. Her first run was with my community college’s newspaper, ‘The Wright Times’, where she wrote and illustrated “Probable Enemies”. A monthly gag comic about a boy genius who spends his free time pestering the city’s local superhero. Then she branched into making the webcomic series “The Tricksters Abreast Tales”, an urban fantasy that follows a girl befriending a half trickster and two governmental agents who deal with paranormal-based cases. She also sells prints at conventions, recently branched to making Zines, and dabbles in animation.
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