AFTER NEW YEARS

The world is a sleeping
womb but restless, how
easy the years are swallowed

and only in half. by morning,
I peel back an orange and feel
the weight of it

frosted over. tell me how
you spot the horizon when
the days bleed into each

other, how it was just
midnight and the city was
alive and kicking.

Truth is an orange - is the rind of an orange.

January will continue to prod
the skin as if to say hurry up,
so much so that it leaves

a scar. this is how we know
a wound exists, just watch
how it consumes.

Jodi Balas is a neurodivergent poet residing in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Her poetry has been featured in Chestnut Review, December Magazine, Sugar House Review, The Shore, Jet Fuel Review and elsewhere. Jodi’s poem, “His mouth, mine” was selected as a finalist for the 2023 River Heron Review poetry prize and her poem, “Bone Density” won the 2023 Comstock Review Muriel Craft Bailey Award judged by Danusha Lameris. Jodi is currently in the process of marketing her first Chapbook to publishers and will hopefully be one of many works to come. You could follow her musings on Instagram @jodibalas_