Liz Mariani

are you are the screenwriter
resting in a field of garlic?

are you are the banker
sinking into another suburban fold?

are you are the lover
at the door on the floor at the door?

are you the border guard?
this is a field of garlic

spin the clearcut field of snow
chew the wind

this is the lack of visibility
this is the best edit

this is snow blindness
this is the cost

Liz Mariani‘s work has been published in Two Serious Ladies, Italian Trans Geographies (edited by Danila Cannamela, Marzia Mauriello, and Summer Minerva via SUNY Press), Great Lakes Review, The Waiting Room, The Buffalo News, After The Pause, and Advaitam Speaks. Find her at linktr.ee/lizmarianipoetry

This poem appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.