Litany of things I don’t mind
His hands that never touched me.
The way she laughs after being obscene. First
Sunrise on open water. Lost at sea. Dying
When it is needed. The way my dog looks at me
When I forget to roll down her window while driving,
So she can bark at everything. To be ruined. To be burned.
I was a pathetic mess, how easy, this mess.
Ibe Liebenberg
Ibe Liebenberg lives in Chico, California, and works as a firefighter for Cal Fire and as a lecturer at Chico State University. He is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. He is currently enrolled in the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has been published in The Journal of Chickasaw History and Culture, Chico State Universities Multicultural Echoes Literary Magazine, and The ThreePenny Review.