Philly Poetry Chapbook Review is pleased to present three original poems by Alexandra Meyer as our fourth of seven biweekly featured poets of the Summer 2025 issue.
Poems
Petrified
To fall in love, you must not breathe. Die
quickly, so your lover can encase your being and
protect you from decay. Allow their skin to envelop you
in your temporal state. A chrysalis in which you wait.
Love locks the body as minerals seize wood,
Turning it slowly and quietly, to rock.
The body becomes hard,
modified at the molecular level.
A fossil of the person you were before.
You must allow them to seep into your veins
swap the nutrients in your blood with their own.
The breakdown will be slow as you
absorb them into your pores.
Every space, filled by their being.
Take a deep breath – take it all in.
Your skin turns to quartz.
Your mind, an intricate system of three-sided pyramids.
Your heart, solidified and made strong.
You look like you, only now made to glitter, bold:
transformed and transfigured.
After your new body has been fully formed,
be careful not to sway.
Your body is a crystalline solid–
a geometric wet dream,
and nothing shatters so easily
as a petrified person in love.
Pillow Talk
Annotate my skin.
Trace the goosebumps
left by your breath.
Connect the dots of my
freckles. Marks telling a
story of kisses and thumbs
pressing into my hips
my lungs reaching out
to feel the grace of your touch.
Please — use the pen
of your tongue to write
love letters along my
neck, stomach, thighs.
I want you
to leave a mark. To bite
and suck until there is proof
of your existence. So that
I can wear purple, and red,
and green, and yellow. Displayed
proudly on my body. See the
proof of the love you
embedded in my being.
The notes and scribbles left
by you. Maps of your
touch on the papyrus of my skin.
That I lazily follow with my own
hands. Even after you have left.
Reliving. Every. Touch.
What I Want
I want to eat cereal in bed.
Milk dripping down my chin
and onto the green sheets,
little crumbs peppering my upper lip;
no need to wipe them away
because hopefully, you’ll kiss me
and lick the sweetness away from my face.
About “Petrified”
‘Petrified’ is about the first time I ever really fell in love. It was a terrifying process. I didn’t know the ways it would change me – my body, my mind. It breaks and rebuilds you. Love had made me stronger in a lot of ways, but also showed me the weakest parts of myself that were left crystallized for him to see. This was much like wood morphing into rock during the petrification process. While it is natural, there was something reverent about the delicate aspects of this process that made me think about falling in love. It was slow, transformative, and utterly terrifying; yet it made me into the person I am today.
Author Bio
Alexandra Meyer is a poet from Wichita, Kansas. Her writing is shaped by growing up in a female-dominated household with four sisters, Kansas wildlife, and the conversations around her. She studied English at the University of Kansas and continues to write while holding free writing classes for her community.
Contents
Chapbook Poem: The Blessed Knot by Li-Young Lee
“A well-made poem is a knot, but not a tangle. The well-made knot of a poem can disentangle readers from illusion, to free them from confusion. Poetry is a form of disillusionment.” Read the July Chapbook Poem by Li-Young Lee along with words from the poet.
“This work is an archive of my attempts to become more familiar with who I am, and why I am here, to immerse myself in these ancient spiritual questions…” Check out five poems and five images by Laynie Browne along with a few words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: Creating Space by Lisa Sewell
“Yoga, the walks, and the writing became a daily exercise in paying attention—to the world, to the bodies in the world around me and to my own body…” Read the Excerpt Poem of the Month for July 2025 by Lisa Sewell along with words from the poet.
“My poetry tries to examine … the difference between the lives we live inside ourselves and the lives we expose to other people.” Read five poems by William Doreski along with a few words from the poet.
July ’25: Poetry Readers Wanted
Read a note from editor Aiden Hunt about PCR’s Summer poetry and new poetry reader opportunities brought by our growing original poetry submissions.
Four Poems by allison whittenberg
“I grew up as a film buff and I loved reading Hollywood Babylon. Over the years, I have learned to separate the truth from the myths.” Read four poems by allison whittenberg along with a few words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: August Peaches by Winshen Liu
“I wanted to sit with a particular end-of-summer indulgence, where a host has saved specialty foods to welcome visiting friends and family–fancy chocolate, favorite sodas, a certain snack.” Read a poem from Winshen Liu’s chapbook Paper Money along with words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: Cheesecake Factory by Max McDonough
“This poem lives in the weirdness of the suburban mall spaces a lot of us grew up visiting (or loitering in!), places that feel like they could be anywhere and nowhere at once.” Read a poem from Max McDonough’s chapbook along with words from the poet.
Three Poems by Alexandra Meyer
“Love had made me stronger in a lot of ways, but also showed me the weakest parts of myself that were left crystallized for him to see. This was much like wood morphing into rock during the petrification process.” Read three poems by Alexandra Meyer along with words from the poet.
Three Poems by Kristiane Weeks-Rogers
“Anchored by sensory detail, the poem journeys between childhood safety and adult experience in a canyon town shaped by rivers and monsoons. … This poem is a meditation on time, tastes, and tenderness of memory.” Read three poems by Kristiane Weeks-Rogers along with words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: The Seventh Age of Shakespeare’s Father by Scott LaMascus
“This poem hit me hard last winter, sitting a moment near my late father, as our family was trying to absorb the meaning of his ALS diagnosis … I wondered, if ‘all the world’s a stage,’ what role had I just been assigned?” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for September 2025 along with words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: Landscape with footprints in ash by Selma Asotić
“When I want to sound smart, I say things like: a poet is one who leaves. When I accept that I’m not very smart, mostly just perplexed and a little scared, I write poems about ghosts and circle farms.” Read a poem from Asotić’s new book, Say Fire, along with words from the poet.
“All of my encounters with the U.S. healthcare system follow the protocols of the ridiculous. This poem, couched in the conventions of the contemporary sonnet, explores my latest, decisive encounter with a doctor’s office.” Read three poems by Robin Arble along with words from the poet.
September ’25: Best of the Net Nominations
Editor Aiden Hunt announces Philly Chapbook Review’s Best of the Net 2026 anthology nominations in this editor’s note and provides links to the nominated poems.
Verses of Mourning: in the aftermath by Jessica Nirvana Ram
“[Ram] presents a revealing and heartbreaking collection that asks the reader to think about what they remember the most about those they have lost.” Read Alex Carrigan’s full review.
“This poem reckons with our capitalist, product-driven society to ask people why disabled stories are only relevant if they portray the ‘other’ overcoming trauma to become abled people’s inspiration porn.” Read three poems by Makena Metz along with words from the poet.