May 2025 - Featured Artist - Kes Maro
About the Artist
Kes Maro (they/he) is a poet and visual artist currently based in Lowell, MA. As a fierce community member of our Lowell Poetry Wheel, they have brought Mill City Speaks to the final stage at Northbeast, and took the title at 2024s Vox Pop Poetry Slam. They also co-founded the Mill City Speaks Writing Retreat and have made merch for our lovely community. Kes is also an educator, a sweetheart, and a cat dad. You can find their work at the Western Ave Studios, Beyond Queer Words, Closed Eye Open, and Passengers Journal.
Additional Works
https://theclosedeyeopen.com/issue-xii/
Featured Poem -
a hoodie drives a bottle of glitter glue over an international border.
After Zachary Schomburg
the hoodie is a conspiracy theorist. but he says he likes to check his facts.
the glitter glue is an optimist because he is far from home. next to the
glitter glue there is a cup of coffee. steaming and lidless. the hoodie tells
the glitter glue that the government made up glitter. that glitter. is a dist-
raction from the war. the hoodie says. you don’t know war like we do. your
government keeps sending weapons. it doesn’t matter who’s in charge.
they’re all the same.
this is a pothole or a speed bump. the car bounces and the coffee sloshes
up. there is a moment where the glue and the cup realize that they are
crossing a border in the hoodie’s white van—
—the cup does not spill their coffee. but the whole car is
filled with steam.
the glue leans back in his seat. the glue thinks that the hoodie might be a
little right. about the war and the weapons. but has never been more aw-
are that he is made of glitter. the glue looks out the window at the sun
and worries about catching the light.
the hoodie takes them to the forest. in the forest they hike. the hoodie
runs ahead and hides. for the next few hours the hoodie and the glue pre-
tend that they are not playing hide and seek with each other. the hoodie
likes to talk. but hates it when no one talks back. the glue likes to listen.
they come across a cave. the hoodie says. are you scared? we can go around.
his voice has a twinkle in it.
no way. says the glue. catching the light.
the hoodie and the glue are playing. out in woods that neither of them
call home. they stop pretending that they are not. like little boys they do
not need to know each other's names to recognize each other as friends.
the glue is still made of glitter and the hoodie still does not know. but
there might be a glimmer in the way they speak to each other. when
their cheeks are red and the sun has started to set. the hoodie and the
glitter glue and the cup of coffee eat a big meal together. the hoodie drives
them back over the border and for a second there. it almost feels like they
fixed something.