2 Poems

Sophia Tempest

untitled #1



my tolerance for misery

should be studied


I could walk on all fours

if it was needed


I can get a mince pie

to the king on time


I can thrust my hips

like nobody’s business


I know how

to let the light in


I know how

to be a hole



untitled #2


I don’t have hobbies / I don’t have wisdom teeth / I believe in the resistance / I know an an

angel when I see one / I know how to pray on my knees / I know how to yell in the streets / I

can open my mouth / I can show them the rot / I know in my heart that pain is holy / that

pain is good / I’ve never earned the love or money / I think I deserve / I think we all deserve

/ I know my worth / and it’s not that much / I can make a cardamom and rosewater cake /

and it’ll turn out just okay / I met god in bucks county PA and he was ugly, so ugly / so ugly

that if you saw him you’d cry




Sophia Tempest lives in Philadelphia. Her work has been featured in Sobotka,  ÖMËGÄ, and elsewhere. Her first chapbook, a lamb hangs by its own foot, was released by Ghost City Press in 2019 and her full-length collection, WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN, was released with Another New Calligraphy in 2022.