andrew garvin
Decluttering
When we lived together, we’d leave furniture on the street and never expect any of it back. Too often I recycle the departed. You, Dad, Grams, the boyfriend from the river town, the boyfriend with the cool apartment, the dog I raised myself—they remain in poems even when I lose track of my belongings. Their absence leaves a gap, a shade from the sycamore trees on the avenue. I loved you once on the corner of Mariposa and seventeenth. And before you I adored another at the sewer near the old house off Westlake. There’s more to trash than incineration.
Andrew Garvin (He/Him/His) is a poet, writer, game designer, social worker, and educator born in Los Angeles, California. His work has been featured with the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Silk Road Review, Canyon Voices Magazine, and more. He was awarded first place in poetry for the 2018 VCU Writing Awards. He received his MFA in poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University, MSW from Columbia University in New York, and BA from the University of Southern California. He lives in San Francisco.