Feeling underwater in southern Florida isn't novel—anyone familiar with the humidity there can tell you. But the night in this poem was special because I felt like I could breathe again despite the heaviness of the air around us. I was falling in love, terrified and learning new things about myself, beginning to see the world differently. Here, the DELI sign almost seems to say DEIU. That same sleight of hand was being performed on reality all around us: it is that veil-parting feeling I wanted to capture in this poem. 

David Eileen is an Ohio native who earned his MFA from Florida Atlantic University while Editor-in-Chief of the school’s literary magazine, Swamp Ape Review. They are currently a poetry editor for Alien Magazine. Their work has appeared in The Atlantic, Diagram, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Best of the Net, among others.

W: david-eileen.com
X: @weirdmuseum
I: @thevibeguardian