Amy Marques
That Time When You Could Have Won the Spelling Bee
And you were pressed to spell “drought” and you felt sweat gather at your wing bones and your teacher said you had to speak up or you would be disqualified if she couldn’t hear you and you were so hungry for the Care Bear pencil prize and you felt as small as an ant and air scratched at your throat and you tried and you cracked and your voice came out like a butterfly song and the other children laughed and your teacher said you can do this and you knew the answer and you felt like you were on the edge of a cliff and you were afraid to fly so you didn’t jump.
Amy Marques grew up between languages and places and learned, from an early age, the multiplicity of narratives. She’s been nominated for multiple awards, longlisted twice in Wigleaf 50, and has visual art, poetry, and prose published in journals such as Streetcake Magazine, South Florida Poetry Journal, Fictive Dream, Unlost, Ghost Parachute, BOOTH, Chicago Quarterly Review and Gone Lawn. She is the editor and visual artist for the Duets anthologies and author and artist of the chapbook Are You Willing? and the found poetry book PARTS. More at amybookwhisperer.wordpress.com.
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