Connor Donovan



All the Debts Owed

Some to the banks. Some
the basin. Some soaring 

in wind & winding road, 
stroking along her water 

polished hair. Some
to her skipping stones

into the creek, watching
them test the waters

before dunking under.
Some to the silence

surrounding her. To leave 
want wading between

her lips. The thirst to give 
to the undertow of her mouth, 

burning with salted touch. 
Some to the full belly of wheat

grass where she lies, yellow moon
face of sunflowers around her.

To indebt your body to hers. 
Her stream running through 

you, breath turning silk 
in the navel of her. Some 

to her lamb’s ear skin. Her voice 
prodding the air like a suture. 

Filling the thin incisions 
with desire. To thumb it 

from the breeze. To let 
your body soften into it. 

Some when looking at 
campfire lighting 

her face, an untamable sky. 
Redding her lips. 

Such an earthly touch. 
When you go to repay her, 

give her all you’d give 
the river & the water it holds. 

When the river opens
her arms, walk into them.


Lovely is the world (i)

—After Yehuda Amichai

playing Tetris with the dishes
that don’t fit in the dishwasher, 

too tired to wash them herself. 
Her body a quiet rattle as she 

dips her fingers into the yuck, 
pulls the jaws of two plates apart 

& rests a last dish, her hands
gummed in wet food & oil. 

Lovely is the world with her cavern 
eyes, tapioca hands, & laundry

-folded skin, branched with blue veins. 
Lovely is the world draping me

in heavy humanity because we’re late
for my barium swallow. I haven’t eaten

in weeks, & she tells me it paints
my insides in metal. Lovely is the world

taking me to become the next Iron Man.  
Lovely is the world helping me eat

when we get home, trying to convince 
me that I’m still superhero material.





Connor Donovan (he/him) is a mathematics graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a winner of the 2023 Healthline Zine Ekphrasis Contest and a Pushcart Prize Nominee. His work can be found or is forthcoming in Ghost City Review, Vagabond City Lit, the engine(idling, underscore_magazine, and Hawai’i Pacific Review, among others. Find him at connordonovan.carrd.co.