2 Poems by Adrienne Novy

Adrienne Novy is a Jewish and disabled artist, Bettering American Poetry and Pushcart Prize nominee, and graduate from Hamline University’s Creative Writing program. She is the author of Crowd Surfing With God (Half Mystic Press, 2018) and the mini-chapbooks, We Have Each Other’s Flowers (Zines + Things, 2020) and Pull (Ginger Bug Press, 2020). Her most recent work can be found in Vagabond City Lit and “You Flower/ You Feast: An Anthology of Prose, Poems, & Plays inspired by Harry Styles”. She lives in the Upper Midwest and has a cat named Laurie.

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portrait of the artist as lights up by harry styles, sequins soaked in the pacific ocean, 2019


since i sleep in the dark alone, i fold
into the hum & glow of me. a finger
is drawn down my torso & becomes
a prickly scrambling. the boys
who wouldn’t look twice at me
in high school like my instagram photos
now. none of them know i smell like lemons
when i really try, or feel more like me
submerged in bubbling water, like a torpid knife
embracing the harvest, my body is inconsistent
in its want & gratitude--i’m sorry by the way, the sour of being
encased in skin—is much messier than anticipated, i do not desire myself
unless someone else is hungry. i would make the mirror prism
its growl if i could.





falling by harry styles is actually about mental health recovery


& I will die on this hill, whether it is made of gold
or not. my hands, a scaffold, a benevolent temple,

dedicated to some new & warm g-d, i pray
for a freezer full of ice packs & a kitchen sink free of dishes,

thankful to be drenched in amber that is only the sun
in the morning &, even so, what am I now 

if I’m someone I don’t want around, undeserving
of joys such as iridescent nail polish & the breeze from tulle blouses?

​I call my therapist, sobbing.
Someone somewhere is playing piano at the bottom of the ocean.