I always loved mood
rings as a child, it was the treasure
I chose at the dentist, the prize
I purchased from the gumball
machine that sat in grocery store entries.
I would slip the cheap silver band
onto my finger and press it close
to my skin - I wanted every degree
of body heat to register.
Red was in love, green was envy, blue
was happy. Every time my ring refused
to change, stayed a stubborn
black. How I wished, just once, that the stone
would turn red – even then, I was obsessed
with knowing if I was in love.
Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the chapbooks All in the Family (Bottlecap Press) and The Violence Within (Flutter Press) and is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte. She loves nail polish, wine, and tattoos. Read her blog at www.wordperv.com, follow her on twitter: , or find her on facebook: facebook.com/poetry.CourtneyLeBlanc.
ISSUE TWENTY: RS: Steamy, y'all
Vanessa Maki
dance with ghosts
David Joez Villaverde
The Things We Did Right
Linda Wojtowick
Reset
Private Account
Claire Scott
Voice Control
Courtney LeBlanc
Mood
R.A. Allen
Buried Alive