Unfinished Exit
By Claudia Wysocky
I keep thinking
about the time in high school
when you drew
me
a map of the city,
I still have it somewhere.
It was so easy
to get lost
in a place where all the trees
look the same.
And now
every time I see
a missing person's poster
stapled to a pole,
all I can think is
that could have been me.
Missing,
disappeared.
But there are no
posters for people
who just never came back
and you haven't killed yourself
because you'd have to commit to a
single exit.
What you wouldn't give to be your cousin Catherine,
who you watched
twice in one weekend get strangled nude
in a bathtub onstage
by the actor who once
filled your mouth with quarters at
your mother's funeral.
The curtains closed and opened again.
We applauded until
our hands were sore.
But you couldn't shake the image of
her lifeless body,
the way she hung there like a
marionette with cut strings.
And now every time you try to write a poem,
it feels like a
eulogy.
Eric Zeigler, Center for Sculptural Studies Chalkboard, 2023, Archival Pigment Print, 20" x 15".
Claudia Wysocky is a Polish poet and photographer based in New York. Claudia’s fiction and poetry have appeared in Oddball Magazine, Wordgathering, and Moonday Mag. Her works blend personal reflections with universal themes; actively engaging with her community on social media, she fosters a shared passion for poetry and creative expression.
Eric Zeigler is an artist, designer, and researcher whose current work involves photography and the unconventional transformation of images. He received an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and exhibits his work nationally and internationally. He also writes about human tool use and its connection to contemporary design and non-Anthropocentric ecological viewpoints. Eric is an Assistant Professor of Art in the Department of Art at the University of Toledo.