Gutter Rainbows
Do you remember how your body rubbed
Against mine Us against the wind
The world two sidewalk rainbows
Sidelined by the third rail
Of sideways glances & self-doubt
We grew up under the metal grate that
Slammed down the supermarket each night
We grew up under a manhole graffiti
& gentle grit dancing between
Subway cars hopping the gaps
chasms tagging our constructed identities
Across motion & exhaust your
Landfall different from my landfill
Your tattoos echoing mine
We grew up under the concrete
Slab do you remember the cellar door
Contraptions on the avenue outside salumerias
We had to avoid falling into
Like a bad sitcom or cartoon
Our violence echoing its violence
In our play
Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she is the author of four poetry collections: field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), Suture (Cooper Dillon, 2026) & Malocchia (White Stag, 2026) as well as twelve chapbooks including abject sutures (above/ground press, 2024). Her work has been widely published, & recently appeared/is forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, DIAGRAM, & Sixth Finch. Melissa served as Poet Laureate for the City of Ukiah (2021-2024), and lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library and curates the LOBA Reading Series. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.
