the jacarandas are unimpressed by your show of force

Poetry

Size / / /

By: Gwynne Garfinkle

Issue: 15 September 2025

Content warning:

we’ve lit the green fuse
all over the angelic city
our purple clouds of delight
rise above your tear gas
rain lavender confetti
onto our streets
we stand vigil
thousands upon
thousands of us
in unruly profusion

how small
and joyless you are
with your pellets
of metal and rubber
it’s you who don’t
belong here

About Gwynne Garfinkle

Gwynne Garfinkle lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of a novel (Can’t Find My Way Home) and two collections (Sinking, Singing and People Change), all published by Aqueduct Press. Her work has appeared in Uncanny, Escape Pod, Penumbric, and Not One of Us. For more about her work, visit http://gwynnegarfinkle.com.

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