Glimmers

Kianna Greene

clotted berries on buttered croissants. sucked peach pits.
peeled dandelion stems. the twist and twitch of a morning
stretch. the second-to-last chip in the bag. the shape of the word mercy.
garage doors and their gurgling sounds. E’s laugh when the stubborn 
wreck of our coughs crunch. forgotten food in the fridge.
wondering, as a child, if food had feelings. if it cared to be left
over. being asked how I could still kiss my mother gently, say 
mama with meaning, after all, after all of that. sitting in a living room
scented with fresh loss and old prayers and still thinking, I love it here. 
when the sun pretends it can’t see me. when I pour vinegar to keep the house 
cool. when the afternoon is free of birds or anything large enough
to bristle. when I am still surprised when people I know die. 
the slick of seaweed at cocoa beach, and its real name — sargassum.
how much it sounds like sarcasm. how words remind us 
of other words. how spitting reminds me of my brother’s mind, 
of the summer it lost him, of the hard rain that spring afternoon 
it returned. how I laugh after calling something by the wrong name. 
like saying a spart a may when I meant aspartame. like my mother
calling out the dog’s name when she meant to call for mine. 
the ending of angry and hungry. how I can almost say last night, 
I gried and gried and gried. how english has no verb to describe
a temporary state of being. how we need adjectives. how I need 
other languages. how in spanish I can say, I have hunger 
as if I could give it back. 

Raised in Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia, Kianna Greene is a poet and writer living in Orlando, Florida, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Central Florida. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Salt Hill Journal, The Penn Review, Bellingham Review, Maudlin House, 3Elements Review, and other journals. She has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and was named a finalist for Frontier Poetry’s 2025 Misfit Poem Prize. Currently, Kianna serves as an Associate Poetry Editor for The Florida Review and Director of The Cypress Dome, the University of Central Florida’s undergraduate literary journal. More about her can be found at kiannagreene.com.