"Ode to My Best Friend" by Sophia Carroll

after Lucille Clifton

I almost lose it, in the gym with all the nude bodies that make me love my own despite its lumpiness—your ring. A silver twining around my finger, a silver lining on my worst days.Twisted like DNA, my past & future. How I know you’re sutured to both. You have a new ring now, diamond. Still we meet in this gym and strip down to our skin, our changing bodies. When we were kids we’d peel bark from branches until we found the green center. Now I simply know it is there. Your vivid heart. We sweat out taxes & tired reboots & dog hair. Afterwards I slip into this gift from you. Snake that will never shed its skin. Armor for my weakest part.

Sophia Carroll (she/they) is a chemist, writer, and the editor-in-chief of M E N A C E magazine. Her work appears in wildness, SmokeLong Quarterly, Luna Luna, and elsewhere. Her debut chapbook, "I think we should be louder at Dyke March", is available from Bottlecap Press. Find her on Substack at Torpor Chamber and on Bluesky @torpor-chamber.bsky.social.