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Working: Volume 2, Number 1 - Issue 5 Spring 2023

The Bastard Sonnet​

My friend John has a gun
That’s a part of where he’s from
To play a game that can’t be won
But that triggers me to fight or fly
 
His parents insist on a grandson
To please a god that’s deaf and dumb
Excuse his boyish sins as playful fun
As they dribble down my thigh
 
Could be nine or fifty-one
While I bleed, the depths he’ll plumb
Until I give birth or go so numb
That all of me will die

KELSEY AMENTT
was born outside of Philadelphia to musician parents who ran an eleven-piece soul band. An English and Theater major at Skidmore College, Kelsey had a play produced at the Walnut Street Theater in 2011. Since 2015, Kelsey has lived in Los Angeles and works in film and television.

Copyright © 2023 Empyrean Literary Magazine, L.L.C.
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