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MacQueen’s Quinterly: Knock-your-socks-off Art and Literature
Issue 22: 4 Feb. 2024
Prose Poem: 122 words
By Bella Mahaya Carter

Lost and Found

 

Robbie left breadcrumbs for her elder self—life tucked into hundreds of handwritten notebooks with straight, labeled spines. At sixty, she cracked them open. Her youth batted its eyelashes, swiveled its hips, sweet-talked foul-mouthed hooligans, and raced magicians and merrymakers. It charmed snakes and snobs, crushed all the Candyland players, climbed mountains, and draped itself over peaks without peeking. It sang and danced through hurricanes and carried keys to the eternal kingdom of now. It shimmered in a veil of sweetness and spice that beckoned sailors and saints. It wandered through the high desert on mushrooms, though hers was a jalapeño pepper of a youth with heat between her legs, a burning throat, and tears in her ravenous eyes.

Bella Mahaya Carter
Issue 22 (February 2024)

is an award-winning author of three books, most recently, Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? Finding Peace of Mind While You Write, Publish, and Promote Your Book. A devoted wordsmith and spiritual psychology practitioner, Bella facilitates online writing circles for writers, artists, healers, and seekers. Her work has appeared in The Sun Magazine, Calyx, Lilith, Literary Mama, MacQueen’s Quinterly, The Dribble Drabble Review, and elsewhere. She’s currently working on an intergenerational family memoir in flash.

 
 
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