a dark worry between your eyes, pulling the
helmet over my head—
still worried I might get hurt—leave us—
you alone with our children
and I pull on this vow of care, a silk
robe from the dryer, tie

at the waist. yellow dust and the rush—
blur of houses behind us.
we can’t hear anything for the blow
of honeysuckle air,
the engine of the four-wheeler between our legs.

a century-old clapboard church enters
the frame. it sinks where it will.
of course, we want to go in.
out here, there are no ordinances.
no one will come to condemn.

so we walk into the church holding hands.
poppy-colored lilies reach in
through broken windowpanes,

their leafy vines covering the sills.
I remember now,

I tried to listen carefully to the preacher at our wedding.
I was listening too hard. I can only recall my soberness.

over there was once an altar for prayer.

I drop your hand and move towards a piano with molded keys, its
pollen and mute hammers.

this is nothing new.
you’ve borrowed your father’s boots.

we are here to see, take in disintegrating pews
and glass shards of the old church.
I imagine how people attended:
every Sunday holy,

then one day they stopped.

Kwoya Fagin Maples is a writer from Charleston, S.C. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and is a graduate Cave Canem Fellow. She is the author of Mend (University Press of Kentucky, 2018) a finalist for the 2019 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry and finalist for the 2019 Housatonic Poetry award. In addition to a chapbook publication by Finishing Line Press entitled Something of Yours (2010) her work is published in several journals and anthologies including Blackbird Literary Journal, Obsidian, The Langston Hughes Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, The African-American Review, Pluck!, Tin House Review Online and Cave Canem Anthology XIII. Prior to publication, Mend was also the 2017 finalist for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. Maples teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama.

SPOT ILLUSTRATIONS & LOGO CREATED BY KELCEY PARKER ERVICK

Hypertext Magazine and Studio (HMS) publishes original, brave, and striking narratives of historically marginalized, emerging, and established writers online and in print. HMS empowers Chicago-area adults by teaching writing workshops that spark curiosity, empower creative expression, and promote self-advocacy. By welcoming a diversity of voices and communities, HMS celebrates the transformative power of story and inclusion.

We have earned a Platinum rating from Candid and are incredibly grateful to receive partial funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Humanities, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and Illinois Arts Council.

If independent publishing is important to you, PLEASE DONATE.