Synkroniciti is pleased to welcome back poet Jonathan Fletcher, currently based in New York City. “Marble,” one of our poetry contest finalists, is a devastating poem about breaking off a relationship. “I thought, hoped/ you might admire me./ Instead, you told me/ that I must be stone.” Jonathan’s poem is simple, bare, and heart-felt, comparing his situation to that of a broken nude statue in a museum. Society often praises those who stay together, but what of those who cling to a lover with such force that the person can no longer be themselves? When the person closest to you is adversarial and controlling it is hard to leave or stay. We feel exposed, not only to them, but to the judgments of others.
Read “Marble” in our September 1st issue, “Broken,” available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jonathan Fletcher, a queer, disabled writer of color, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in Poetry from Columbia University School of the Arts. He has been published in Arts Alive San Antonio, Synkroniciti, TEJASCOVIDO, and The Thing Itself. His work has been featured by The League of Women Voters of the San Antonio Area, and at the Briscoe Western Art Museum and the San Antonio Museum of Art. He has served as a Creative Artist/Teacher for New York City’s iHOPE, a specialized school for students with traumatic brain injuries, as well as a poetry editor for Exchange, Columbia’s literary magazine for incarcerated writers and artists. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow.