Little As Living / Meghan Tutolo

A native of the once-booming aluminum town of New Kensington, PA—just north of Pittsburgh—Meghan Tutolo spends her days juggling life and art. She writes and edits for the marketing department of an Italian foods company, teaches English Composition at a local college, and paints ferociously. When she isn’t doing any of the above, she can be found playing the ukulele in her kitchen, “thinking too much” or “asking too many questions.” Her poems have appeared in The Oklahoma Review, Arsenic Lobster, and Chiron Review—but also some obscure literary journals, local newspapers, paper placemats and old receipts. BECOMING LESS i.Black & open [ like apocalypse ]the night came for me, a suremouth, forecast in trumpets.Golden-eyed Venus emergesbags packed heavy & ready,the moment her wet feet touchedEarth.First, I find her secrets—the warm & familiar rise of her chest,blood-orbit of center skin, a sonnetwritten in swelled ink alongthe dark mirror of her spine. I’m tracingin-love, wit