SONJA VITOW—"(WHEN NO ONE)" (Issue 26)

Sugar House Review · Sonja Vitow's "(When No One)"

(When No One)

a soft thing often 

hopes to be touched 

(the temptation to take a soft 

thing in your palm 

& when no one is looking, 

check to see that it’s really 

so soft) 

to tender something 

delicate (when no one is looking) 

what great responsibility 

(the temptation to take a soft 

thing in your palm 

& spend a finger over it, 

thinking just: how soft, how 

fragile) the temptation 

to take the soft thing between 

a finger and thumb 

and apply some pressure 

(just some) 

& when it breaks, pretend 

it was never soft 

(the temptation to then say) 

I didn’t know my own strength

ABOUT THE POET 

Sonja Vitow (she/they) is a queer Jewish teacher living in the Jamaica Plain 

neighborhood of Boston, where they are the editor of a small literary magazine 

called The Knicknackery and in charge of the soap enterprise I'd Lather Not. They 

received their MFA in creative writing from Emerson College in 2013, and are 

currently pursuing their PhD in human sexuality from Widener University. Some 

of their work can be found in Rattle, Harvard Review, Fugue Journal, The Rumpus, 

and Carve Magazine, or at SonjaVitow.com.

ABOUT SUGAR HOUSE REVIEW 

We loved reading the work that we’ve published (clearly), and we want an 

opportunity to better hear our contributors. We're featuring audio recordings of 

poems from our pages, read by the poet. This an open invitation to all contributors 

from any of our issues, we were delighted to print your work, now we’re eager to 

hear it.

SKYE JACKSON—"SADE & STEVIE SONNET SEQUENCE" (Issue 26)

Sugar House Review · Skye Jackson's "sade & stevie sonnet sequence"

SADE & STEVIE SONNET SEQUENCE

i listen to sade with men i love 

foolish & wild, i whisper forever 

glistening like diamonds, so wet, in their beds: 

my spent heart, cold, shakes the four posts again 

don’t mock me as i melt into my gin 

it starts with record players and hot nights 

i find the wrong ones & fail to do right. 

the wine hugs as you call me a good girl. 

desire gussies my throat like ruined pearls. 

there are depths to the sorrow her voice holds: 

sometimes i think you’re just too good for me 

i beg for a cage but you set me free 

i know i’m about to have a breakup— 

stevie’s voice through the cvs speakers 

the cvs dims as stevie’s voice spins: 

when you build your house / then please call me home 

i buy plan b & pads i hope to need. 

the dark blood comes as i drive into work. 

the psychic will call it a miscarriage. 

my soul will call it an answered prayer. 

i look for a man who was never there. 

i call in sick as my bent body roars. 

there are certain debts only women pay. 

who did i destroy? myself, you or us? 

years later, i don’t remember his name: 

the man who stood outside as i shed you. 

sade’s voice purrs through my studio walls: 

will you keep bringing out the best in me?

ABOUT THE POET 

Skye Jackson was born and raised in New Orleans, LA. She served as a poetry 

editor for Bayou Magazine and several other publications. Her work appeared or 

is forthcoming in Electric Literature, Green Mountains Review, Rattle, and 

elsewhere. Her debut chapbook A Faster Grave won the 2019 Antenna Prize. She 

was a finalist for the 2020 Rattle Poetry Prize, and in 2021, she won the AWP 

Intro Journals Award. Her work was recently selected by Billy Collins for 

inclusion in the Library of Congress educational programming. This past spring, 

she was crowned the winner of the legendary KGB Open Mic Contest in New 

York City. She currently serves as the 2022 Writer-In-Residence at the Key 

West Literary Seminar in Florida.

ABOUT SUGAR HOUSE REVIEW 

We loved reading the work that we’ve published (clearly), and we want an 

opportunity to better hear our contributors. We're featuring audio recordings of 

poems from our pages, read by the poet. This an open invitation to all contributors 

from any of our issues, we were delighted to print your work, now we’re eager to 

hear it.