Working for the Knife, Kassian-Howard

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i have been shopping at the same neighborhood grocery store for over twenty years, well before the teenager managing self-checkout was even born. when he walks by me a second time, i notice the. blonde highlights running though his alpaca shag and wonder if they are the result of sun & early morning swim team practices or a bottle of miss clairol nice and easy. i know after the third pass, he is watching me, only me, even though there are plenty of other shoppers checking out. maybe it’s my hair. i, too, have highlights, blonde and brown, loc’d up in a messy bun. maybe it’s my skin that looks sunkissed year-round. i don’t fault him. i know he’s only doing what he’s been trained to do: to keep an eye out for my variety. there are only three items in my basket today (but it doesn’t matter): a sprig of fake organic mint, a five-pound bag of white sugar, and one large lemon with a sticky sticker covering up the black bruise i don’t notice until i am home and it’s time to squeeze lemonade out of this life. 

Evans

Michele Evans, a fifth-generation Washingtonian (D.C.), is a writer, teacher, and adviser for Unbound, an award-winning high school literary magazine.  This Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Watering Hole Fellow, and winner of The ASP Bulletin Poetry Contest studied at Smith College, King’s College London, and the Graduate School at the University of Maryland. Her poems have appeared in Artemis Journal, Maryland Literary Review, Yellow Arrow Journal, Mid-Atlantic Review, and elsewhere. purl , her debut poetry collection , is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2025. You can find her at awordsmithie.com or @awordsmithie on Instagram.

Kassian-Howard: Though I’ve made jewelry amateurly since about 10, in 2020 the pandemic allowed my exploration of metalsmithing and 2D art. Upon this, I developed my wire-wrapping skills using semi-precious crystals and silver wire, selling products through Instagram and Etsy and creating my online storefront, “Waltz and Theory.” In Fall 2021, I decided to pursue a Jewelry degree at Towson, now with the ability to execute my ideas into metalsmithing. I hope to continue exploring and mastering my artistic skills as I greatly enjoy the open-ended yet very technically challenging approach to art that jewelry and 2D allows me to apply.