Anna Gibbs

Why I try to avoid the H-bomb

The summer before my freshman year of college. I’m working as waitstaff for a catering company in my hometown. Tonight’s wedding is at Turner Hill, a brick mansion overlooking a golf course. It’s crowded and hot; I’m wearing a full black tuxedo and sweating thoroughly. I’m also eyeing an attractive, curly-haired man working at the …

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On sestinas

dead grass, sunset lightning, lonely

Sestinas are one of my favorite types of poems because they are absolutely wacky and have an absurd number of strict rules. These include: 1) six stanzas, six lines each, with one final triplet, 2) each stanza has the same six words at the end of their six lines, 3) the order of these end …

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The last day of summer

On this last day of summer, I count coins. I sit on my childhood bedroom carpet and dump out a few hundred dirt-caked nickels and pennies and dimes and some broken rubber bands. When I was younger, my weekly $3 allowance came in the form of coins. My dad gave me his stash of colorful …

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