Melissa Eleftherion

suture #6

her

echo in

blood

at the mall

opera

[of apology]

[Erasure poem]. Source Text: Pike, Christopher. Slumber Party. pg. 27. Scholastic, 2005.

suture #185

This time

the monsters lived here

silence

a coil of rope

a camera

silence

like a trail of slime

bulging muscles

in

the closet

i opened

halfway

[Remixed poem]. Source Text: Harris, Charlaine. Real Murders. pg. 185. Orion, 1990.

third suture 

the

blood

time

I knew

a 

violent house

[Erasure poem. Source text: Andrews, V.C. My Sweet Audrina, pg. 3. Simon and Schuster, Pocket Books. 1982]

suture #25

I moan

and 

fault

The dolls

lying there

bleeding 

[Erasure poem. Source text: Andrews, V.C. My Sweet Audrina, pg. 25. Simon and Schuster, Pocket Books. 1982]

Learn more about these poems.

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills College, and San Jose State University. They are the author of the full-length poetry collections: field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), as well as twelve chapbooks including abject sutures (forthcoming from above/ground press, 2024). Her work has been widely published & featured in venues like Quarter after Eight, Sixth Finch, Entropy, & Barren Magazine. Melissa now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, and serves as Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Ukiah. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.