AJAR

SAPPHIRE LYNN JOHNSON

I found my limbs stuffed together                                               in a cookie jar.
by some man or  s o m e t h i n g 
I didn’t mean to lie 
with.

Bitter sugar 
trails led me to                                                                                      my body, 
skin dolloped in deep plum
jam
severed and salted 
in “pretty”  p a r t s
pain no longer mine.

High Jar
too fragile for me 
to grasp,
t h e  b o d y 
too “grown”
too easy
So he said …

I                                                                                                                         aged 
out of step stools,
but I kept trying to reach  i n s i d e
until                                                                                                                eighteen

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SAPPHIRE LYNN JOHNSON is an African American writer from Chicago who is pursuing a BA in Creative Writing at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Currently, she works as Editor-In-Chief for Broadside Literary Magazine, where she reads submissions from students and critiques them. You can find her work in the upcoming issue of The Yesterday Review and the EJL Anthology What Hides in the Dark released on November 7, 2025.