Current
Issue
Fall 2026 / Volume 13.1
John Elizabeth Stintzi
—
“CAN ONE FIND EXTROVERTS ON FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE?”
I text Sophia, a few weeks after the first
date I’ve had since the divorce. I’ve kept
my distance since: the spring wind
and a hopeless, elsewhere crush craning
my neck in and out the loop of the noose.
We had a nice time, all said. We skipped
the loud hockey bar and ate Ethiopian.
I gave them one of my spoon rings,
in the same way my friend Alice
gave me one of hers. We hugged. It is
wrong to say that I’ve been drained
of life, exactly—but it’s no more wrong
than it is to say anything exactly.
I see the crack in my shell, but my fresh
beak lacks the eggtooth. I’m positive
I’ll die in here if I’m not cared for.
Before it’s too late, I’ll haggle
for an extrovert with a jackhammer
and a heartbeat I can sync up to. Please.
Please don’t let my life reach the horizon
I see stretching out in front of me.
John Elizabeth Stintzi (she/they) is a writer, photographer, cartoonist, and editor who grew up on a cattle farm in northwestern Ontario. Her work has been awarded the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize, and the Sator New Works Award. JES is the author of the acclaimed novels My Volcano and Vanishing Monuments, as well as the short story collection Bad Houses, the poetry collection Junebat, and the comic The Children of Gulga-Krü. Her new novel, Guest Services at the Museum of Sexual Deviance, will be released by Arsenal Pulp Press in the spring of 2028.
