Jennifer Parkhill

Jennifer Parkhill Instagram – “We have to get on the floor.” I said,
“When this song comes on, we have to stop what we’re doing and get on the floor.”
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It was Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain. I can’t listen to it standing up. I have to lay down and let the floor hold all of my body.
I laid down on the rug.
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An invitation:
come this way.
there is something this way.
leave the water boiling on the stove.
come to the floor.
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The “something this way” is likely as simple or as complex as a feeling.
If you let me, I will hold open the door, for you too, to spill through.
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come this way
I’ll hold your hand
so what if we miss
the dinner reservation
you are radiant
in the light
of your own vulnerability
in the seat of this car
stay here a moment
say more
or less
come home
let your skin make contact
with wonder
sadness
joy
let the feeling come.
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Perhaps I don’t want to be alone here.
Perhaps I lack the dexterity to leave.
One might say, stubbornly, I choose not to.
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A July night in the desert. A decade ago now. The sky, a bounty of stars, I stumble out of an airstream to find two friends laying in the dirt weeping.
“Come here,” they said.
I did.
Now three heads nestled in the dirt.
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“I think we don’t spend enough time looking up,” one said.
They’d taken some mushrooms.
But that didn’t matter.
She was right.
I don’t know how long we laid there watching the sky breathe.
How long we allowed the earth to hold us.
How long we marveled at the certainty of how much we do not know.
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There are no chairs in my living room.
I have decided to keep it this way.
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A plea: surrender convention and get down on the floor with me.
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(Continued in comments or swipe —>)
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📷 @adamcolemandp
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#fathersday #writinglife #artist #poetry #love #queerwriter #queerpoet #actor #queer ⁣#writerscommunity #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #lgbt #poem #poet #poetrycommunity #pride #words #writers #writersofig #writing #lgbtq #poems #poetry #poetsofinstagram #writer | Posted on 20/Jun/2022 06:07:20