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September 18, 2020 Poetry

Gentian Violet

Liam O'Brien

Gentian Violet photo

Gentian Violet

For years I lied
          to everyone
                  said gentian was related
                                             to violet
                  I don’t know why

          I thought it was true
                    a medical dye
                              I’ve never seen
                    (no flowers)
                                                           purple, blue

 

Liam October O’Brien grew up on a small island. His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Denver Quarterly, The Boiler, bæst, The Bennington Review, New Delta Review, and Ghost Proposal. He received his MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and is one of the founding editors of Vetch: A Magazine of Trans Poetry & Poetics. He lives in Brooklyn.

image: Carabella Sands


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