Photography © Lauren Shear

 

Color Theory

After my brother & his friends dye the eggs
their blues & greens & pinks, they press

Snoopy stickers over light blotches & cracks
where the dye won’t take.

That’s what all my family does
on Easter since I’m gone. They sit

(not talking) & press stickers
where the color never seems to want to go.

 

R.J. Lambert (he, him, his) is a queer writer, editor, and teacher in Charleston, SC. As a survivor of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, R.J. has since been interested in how individuals and communities respond to crises—relationship violence, substance addiction, mental health, and HIV/AIDS—through writing. His poem “Habits of Creature” was chosen by Kaveh Akbar to receive the 2021 Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry from New Letters, and he was a published finalist for the 2018 Tupelo Quarterly Broadside Prize and the 2021 Crab Creek Review Poetry Prize. His debut poetry collection, Mind Lit in Neon, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2022.

Lauren Shear is a museum professional, public historian, and lifelong resident of Massachusetts. She has been working with activist groups since college and has been seeking ways to support communities under attack ever since.