We put our shirts
in our mouths
muffling ribbit
ribbit
Some days I want
a vocabulary of the body
more than I want
a body
Makshya Tolbert (she/they) is a poet and potter who just found their way back to Virginia. Makshya serves on the Charlottesville Tree Commission, is a 2022-23 Lead to Life Curatorial Fellow, and is New City Arts’ 2023 Spring Artist-in-Residence. In their free time, they are elsewhere – where Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. calls “that physical or metaphorical place that affords the space to breathe.” Their poems are for putting shade on the ground.