By Laura Vitcova
Featured Art: Stephen Reichert, Untitled, 2012. Oil on canvas, 12″ x 12″. “Cirlce” series.
My lips spread open like the doors of a carnival
ride flashing to reveal a narrow-gauged rail
of teeth that jut from my mouth, pink gums
wedged between white enamel planks,
a freak show, a long tongued chasm
in a distorted body, a chamber of horrors,
a tiger’s bladed mouth about to rip out
your last thought with a laugh.
But you said mine looked like a horse’s mouth
that deserved a bit, maybe a bridle, definitely
a saddle. I was broken before I knew my flesh
would stretch to accommodate a lifetime
of acorns in my cheeks, that I would learn
to survive the wild winter.
Laura Vitcova was born and raised in Northern California and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied art, music, and is currently attending Pacific University’s MFA Creative Writing program for poetry. Her debut chapbook, Felled, is being published in 2025. Her poems have appeared, or will soon appear, in The Shore, Blue Earth Review, Arts & Letters, and elsewhere. In her spare time, she travels with a camera, volunteers, sings, and hikes with her little scruffy dog, Eli.
Stephen Reichert (American, b. 1975), Baltimore City, Maryland, is a multidisciplinary artist with recent solo shows at Hancock Solar Gallery, Co_Lab, Baltimore City Hall, and Sotheby’s Roland Park Gallery; a current show at The Fox Building; and group shows at Ellington-White Contemporary, The Peale Museum, American Visionary Art Museum, Arts Fort Worth, University of Maryland, National Art League, Cerulean Arts Gallery, Abington Art Center, Sebastopol Center for the Arts and many others. He is the editor of the poetry magazine Smartish Pace. Reichert is represented by K. Hamill Fine Art & Design.
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