Melissa Eleftherion

Silence is a Girl Shaped

The background is a yellowed page from A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. This background text has been both blacked out and colored in with a maroon Sharpie to highlight the excavated visual poem. Superimposed over the text is a goldfinch who appears to be speaking through a thin line of hemp which has has been collaged to the right of the bird. In the upper right corner is a series of numbers from an old library card. At the bottom of the page is an old piece of celluloid which resembles a retro TV set. The hemp appears to connect the TV set & the bird like part of a rabbit-ears antenna.

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, & a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, they are the author of three poetry collections including gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024) & 12 chapbooks. Melissa lives in Northern California where she  served as Poet Laureate for the City of Ukiah, manages the Ukiah Branch Library, & curates the LOBA Reading Series.

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