Content Warning: mental health
Jonathan Fletcher – Doppelgänger
When they confiscated my phone,
bagged my clothes and shoelaces,
I’m sure I glimpsed your shadow
in the dark corner of the room
they assigned me. Don’t feel bad
if you snickered because of how
my hospital gown fit. Or the way
it didn’t. If not for the situation,
I, too, would have laughed. Tears
might’ve come. The other way,
they didn’t. Maybe I’d used them
up. Maybe you wept with mine.
Were they, technically, not yours?
And my new bracelet not graced
with your name? And did you not
speak to me, firmly yet gently,
in a voice that sounded like mine:
Leave. Or was it live? Or love?
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jonathan Fletcher, a queer, disabled writer of color, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in Poetry from Columbia University School of the Arts. He has been published in The Adroit Journal, Arts Alive San Antonio, The BeZine, BigCityLit, Catch the Next: Journal of Ideas and Pedagogy, Colossus Press, Curio Cabinet, Door is a Jar, DoubleSpeak, Emerge Literary Journal, Flora Fiction, FlowerSong Press, fws: a journal of literature & art, Half Hour to Kill, Heimat Review, Hyacinth Review, LONE STARS, Midway Journal, The MockingOwl Roost-An Art and Literary Magazine, MONO., Moot Point.
Artwork: Pilgrim by Helen Gwyn Jones
Helen Gwyn Jones (she/her) started recording her world at the age of 8 when she bought a Brownie camera from her sister, something which has become a lifelong passion. A collector of the past (hers and other people’s) she likes nothing better than muted images of imperfection. May be found poring over Welsh grammar books when not photographing drains or going into raptures over rust. Recent publications include Hungry Ghost Project, Free Flash Fiction, Acropolis Journal, Paddler Press, Blink-Ink, Hecate, Pareidolia, Moss Puppy, The Levatio, Camas, Subliminal, Terse Instagram / Twitter: @helengwynjones Facebook: Helen Gwyn Jones Photographic Artist