Andrea Deeken
Silent Treatment
White static on the television, a wave rising at my back. A wall
of grey clouds skimming towards my car. I am driving away
from you. Since we last spoke, Spring has come. The birds are busy
making their nests. The geese are on their way back—see how they fly
in such haphazard Vs—change course sometimes, the way I change
lanes when late to work. My favorite flowers grow in ravines: purple
hyacinths, yellow dandelions locked in the fists of my only child
who collects them in jars for our kitchen table. Still, I look for ants
among the petals. I don’t know how to please you. Sometimes I think
you’d rather have me framed on your wall then see my living face—these lines
in the corners of my eyes, the crust of leftover sleep, cracked lower lip.
My hands look like your hands now. I pinch the skin, feel its familiar fragility.
Andrea Deeken (she/they) is the author of Mother Kingdom, winner of the 2021 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Prize. Her writing has appeared in Beyond Queer Words, The Blue Mountain Review, Ran Off With the Star Bassoon, Spoon River Poetry Review, and elsewhere. A 2025 Regional Arts & Culture Council professional grant recipient, they are the cofounder of Lesbian Poets Society, an inclusive podcast about queerness and creativity. She lives in Portland, OR with her family.