250 Water Lilies
(listen to the poem, read by the author)
Mrs. Milianta eighth period
eighth grade art class
eighth year (circa) since
the JC Penny Man found
the cloud on my eye (no,
I didn’t catch them in the night
pipette them there drip by
drop until shadow light clouded
my eyes like their own eclipse)
Mrs. Milianta called me over
voice over asinine assignments
shuffle to gray painters table
cluttered with dim (don’t ask
with what) gray painters table
cornered with Dell Desktop
brightness dimmed google
images of something
control plus, control plus, control
plus he’s like you
can you see like Monet?
No, I can’t see beauty in the blur
I was the born with the blur
Mrs. Milianta was not the first,
when you get them removed
you’ll be able to do something,
like Monet, like that Man
I can’t see the beauty in the blur
the blur is the blur and the blur
can be just that and I’m already
doing more than something
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About the Author
Bailey Dunn is a disabled queer biracial poet and writer from Central New York. All of their identities have influenced the way they experience the world and the way they write about it. They are an undergraduate at Montclair State University double majoring in German and Gender, Sexuality, and Womens Studies and minoring in Creative Writing. They also love the simpler things in life: books, bowties, weird words, and very climbable trees.