{"id":58604,"date":"2021-06-06T09:38:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T15:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=58604"},"modified":"2021-06-06T09:38:55","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T15:38:55","slug":"three-pieces-by-poet-britt-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/three-pieces-by-poet-britt-allen\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Pieces by Poet Britt Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"From everyone here at 15 Bytes: Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month and welcome to our June installment of READ LOCAL First \u2014 the world\u2019s most extensive repository of Utah-related poets and writers. Today, we are proud to introduce award-winning poet Britt Allen.<\/em><\/p>\n

In May of 2020,\u00a0Allen completed her Master of Arts degree in Literature and Writing at Utah State University. Nowadays, she teaches academic writing at her alma mater. Her creative interests include “the eroticism of violence in female confessional and lyric poetry.” Allen’s poems, driven by a sensitivity for voice, rely heavily on personal experience. John Lee Clark gave her poetry an Honorable Mention in 2020’s Utah Original Writing Competition. More recently, Fishing Line Press (Summer 2021) released her first chapbook, Harvest. Allen lives in northern Utah with her partner and rescue dog.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Happy Sirens<\/h3>\n

Our first apartment was kitty-corner to the Logan City Fire Department. The shriek of the fire engines could fill our basement home any time, echo off the concrete floors and half-painted ceiling without warning. Logan was a smaller town than most; sirens weren\u2019t constant, but always shocking, live wires of emergency off to save someone else right fucking now<\/em>. His family lived north and mine lived south: one of us lost. The wails yanked us from our cellaresque newlywed life, snapped at our heels as we smoked and walked the dog, slapped us awake in bed. The violence never started small, didn\u2019t whimper before it was red-hot pissed. When it hit, it was already a climaxing scream.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

June<\/h3>\n

The sun pours golden<\/p>\n

yolk in you, Junebug.<\/p>\n

Come morning our sheets<\/p>\n

are runny with light,<\/p>\n

pooling across our mouths<\/p>\n

and kinked ankles. Rinse<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

your tongue in me\u2014<\/p>\n

this summer will boil<\/p>\n

our bones to peach<\/p>\n

gummies, but the simmering<\/p>\n

burns sweet. Lick the warm<\/p>\n

pollen from my cheek\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

play the humming bee to my<\/p>\n

lolling lily pink.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Portrait<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I kneel before my acrylic ghost, painted<\/p>\n

by my husband\u2019s hand. There is perfect<\/p>\n

likeness in each cheek bone, blue<\/p>\n

in the white dress from our wedding day.<\/p>\n

Her arm is round as truth, no inch<\/p>\n

of the ribcage slivered away. To prove<\/p>\n

he knew my face so well he used real<\/p>\n

paint instead of his digital pen, added<\/p>\n

to love\u2019s labor the weight of mistakes.<\/p>\n

Though her ear is stunted, topaz swings<\/p>\n

crystalline on flawless copper strings. In still life<\/p>\n

she has no freckles, no wedding ring.<\/p>\n

Her eyes are closed or she might see<\/p>\n

a pulpy mirror in me, a small<\/p>\n

sweatshirted thing on the floor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She\u2019s an apology. I can\u2019t see<\/p>\n

past his \u201cdon\u2019t leave me\u201d sheen,<\/p>\n

his \u201clook how much I love you\u201d shine,<\/p>\n

every stroke reminiscent of the strokes<\/p>\n

he gave himself in videochats with other wives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The portrait wasn\u2019t ever about me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information about poet Britt Allen, visit brittallen.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For information about her chapbook, Harvest: https:\/\/www.finishinglinepress.com\/product\/harvest-by-britt-allen\/\u00a0<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From everyone here at 15 Bytes: Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month and welcome to our June installment of READ LOCAL First \u2014 the world\u2019s most extensive repository of Utah-related poets and writers. Today, we are proud to introduce award-winning poet Britt Allen. In May of 2020,\u00a0Allen completed her Master […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":58607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[4007],"class_list":["post-58604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first","tag-britt-allen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/BrittHeadshot.jpg-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 01:55:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58604"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58615,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58604\/revisions\/58615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}