Shelley Duvall Captured by Eric Ryan Anderson and Perceived by the Public

Magdalena Acuna

3B Photography, Personal Series

Now, here, I’m out of youth, I’m a woman 		an elderly standing in frame, a cacti palette
A woman of the stretching years
Before, I weighed about four pounds, had tits on my back,	I made these eyelashes.	Before, I painted on my face			cheek to cheek, I directed the pink bungle of tongue 
Those brief
intervals where I was desirable, even if only
from a distance
					Here I make an outreach to the public, I make a
sagged derelict.
 I am a person in a way, taxidermy in another, 		immortalized as any
dead thing is. I loved myself most 			in the recording of my laugh, this softness
requires no fuss, 				no waxy carcass, no prying hands
Just my own bareness regenerating like venison jerky 		I am mastering wholeness,
practicing mounting a horse who has already escaped from my mouth.

Magdalena Acuna Magdalena Acuna is currently a student at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She is a senior level 4. She is one of the 96 Honorable Mentions out of the over 630 entries in the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest. She was awarded the Blair Bonney Scholarship to the Fir and Acres writing program. She has been published four times in Umbra magazine and once in Pictura Journal. She is a winner of the pizza poetry contest with 826 NOLA. She is the winner of the Quarante Club Women's Literary Association contest. she has been learning how to understand herself as she grows into her own person. She is very exited for college. She feels confident in herself and her ability to affect the world around her.