first winter in chicago
by LOLA MARCANTONIO
Jimmy fell asleep on the window again.
He believes
the world gave up all its power to him.
He never mentioned
Michigan again.
God, where have I been?
Sin-polluted tongue that’s been speaking too
often.
Feel the residue on my skin,
you’re the oil spill on my hands.
Oh, my lover wants to be stainless
but he can’t seem to quit
spilling wine in places I wish to forget what they
mean
or placing others’ footsteps in my jeans,
but I cut through the sound of his sleeping.
I’ve been cutting through the sounds of his
doubting.
I cut through everything.
Lola Marcantonio is a 20-year-old emerging artist, poet, and musician. She moved from San Diego, CA, in the summer of 2023 to become a full-time student at UIC, where she is pursuing a degree in Jazz Studies. Lola has been writing from a young age, whether it was short stories, poems, lyrics or scripts, she has always felt a deep connection to the written word. Some of Lola’s other passions include horseback riding on a Saturday afternoon, watching Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas NOT during the holidays, finger-painting, explaining the entire plot of Great Expectations to someone she just met, teaching her rat how to play guitar, and dancing with her friends in a Chicago blizzard until she can’t feel her left big toe.