Stephanie Leone is a third-year BA/FA student studying Fiction Writing at Lang and Communication Design at Parsons. If she had her way, Stephanie would write and illustrate children’s books and hyper-realistic novels. Her style is hard to define because she is still searching for it, but she hopes it looks loose, illustrative, and fantastical all at once.
So What Does It All Mean
i capture
the essence of the perfect day
in charcoal smears, volumizing
a dark man smoking a subtle smoke; affirming
check plus pluses for Ego; visualizing
the story of someone else’s love story; collecting
an array of kisses across the forehead; leaving
pretty footsteps on the city grime; tinkling
notes on a piano at best buy; discovering
a spontaneous ticket to paris at midnight; inhaling
cole porter, picasso, hemingway; clasping
a hand inside your own for once; gasping
for air at the peak of pleasure; realizing
art’s authority is to convey life’s mystery; making
exceptional beauty; holding
happiness that snuck up on you; drinking
peanut butter milkshakes on 12th street; noting
all is never lost; becoming
aware that someone actually listens to your ramblings; rambling
is poetry
Give Me the Latitude and Longitude of My Place in Your Mind
you do not leave footprints
across my fluttering eyelids
just before they quiet
for slumber
anymore
moments of silent thinking
people watching
no longer
unsafe territories
for my wandering mind
no longer wondering
about you
though the back of the mind
is a worse place to be
than the front
because in the back
you sneak up on me sometimes
so that i miss you a little
and wish i knew
whether i was in the front
or back
or nowhere at all
Confidence II
if i am honest
(i think i am quite honest)
i care what you think
Typical Tuesday
the starving artist
smokes cigs in her room and writes
hope the neighbors see
Ex Libello Infucato
i’d kill for you
to love me do
in excess
it’s difficult to imagine
if you’re my
modern love
in
déjà blue
true blue
blue crush
kiss kiss bang bang
UNTITLED
i am convinced
as i always was
that deadly
drowning
deafening
love
is the answer.
but when it becomes
the question,
poised to face
innermost thought
with raw truth
i find
many more questions
many more paths
many more chances
multiplying as i stop
back where i began