Amy DeBellis

Badland

There’s too much sky here. The fields sprawl
like a body unfolded, grass fingernail-thin, paper
parched to splinters. Taps shriek empty; wells recede.
Home is a country I can’t pronounce
and my great-grandmother would not recognize me
or this language. In my school’s single room I cough
clouds of chalk dust, cringe my toes away
from the holes in my shoes. I try to speak
without an accent but the words turn to water
and slither away. When the rain comes
it will corrugate the road like a spine,
drown all of my footprints, turn the plains
into another low and wretched sky. ________________________________________________________________________________________

Amy DeBellis’s debut novel is forthcoming from CLASH Books (2024). She has also had a novella and a collection of poetry published by Thought Catalog Books. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Thimble Literary Magazine, Maudlin House, Eunoia Review and Anti-Heroin Chic.