Olivia Hunt
Summer 2024 | Poetry
At the Duck Pond Rub It Up
I can see the back of this duck’s neck.
Is he ok I can see the back of this duck’s neck
Hi, Mama
Come close to me
And nibble on my foot
Tiny angry other birds,
Too
I can see the purple
Of your feathers beneath your feathers
Beak them to expand yourself
And I will,
Too
When your back is braided
The man will go away
Across the pond he looked at you,
You think
Now you bump in your sleep and get all the good bumps out
The twig around your lips creates a lock
The spots around your belly make it
Look
Real
Big
And then your own fat
Around your sunken neck
Makes it easier to swim late in the day
Rub it up
Olivia Hunt is a New York based writer from Philadelphia. She is a Goldwater Fellow at NYU’s Lillian Vernon House for Graduate Studies in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) and holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her essays have been published by Confluence Art & Research Journal, ANGLES magazine, and Roots.Wounds.Words. Her plays have been produced by Rattlestick Theater, developed by La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, Playwrights’ Center, The Tank, and IRT Theater, and recognized by the O’Neill, KCACTF, Local Theater, and Oxford University Dramatic Society. Her work aims to examine and create radical intimacy. Olivia is also a Bespoke Jewelry Designer at Frank Darling NYC.