same way:, David Toomer

Leland Quarterly | Fall 2022

David Toomer

I form an O with my mouth, press my tongue to the back of my front teeth, and feel my jaw slowly deaden as if molded in amber:

Love. You want to say love. I love. You. You two. I love you, too. You two, I love. Love you too.

Three words, and an end to this dreaded stillness: my staggering heartbeats aligning with their curious blinks, the time—

Oh, God, the time. Get it over with already:

Drop your tongue. Luh. Bring your bottom lip to the blade of your front teeth and blow. Hard. Veuh. The rest is easy. Drop your tongue. Bottom lip; front teeth. Blow. Hard. The rest is easy. Drop tongue. Lip; teeth. Blow. Rest easy.

All I ever manage to spit out is you too— A broken triad left to mourn its lost love.

The call home... | David Toomer

Two parents become black screen, and I wonder why they still smiled as they saw it: the bile of an undigested love forming in my throat and failing to be regurgitated. I want this word to fit like speculum to mouth, for it to explode from my voice like all things good and nuclear, to reciprocate, goddamn it, if only in name, if only in this language that continues to choke me.

Leland Quarterly | Fall 2022

Kaitlyn Choe (she/they) (prose) is a senior majoring in Human Biology and minoring in Creative Writing. She is interested in exploring stories that capture the lived body, especially in the contexts of pain and deisre during adolescece and young adulthood.

Casi Cobb (poetry), is from Miami, FL and has recently desired to indentify with the entire state. Casi just returned from abroad in Australia, which changed and challenged her (though she thought she was done with all that). She loves to knit bonnets for fun, self-identifies as a gossip, and prefers dancing with friends, but would, reluctantly, seduce an entire dance party alone, if she must.

Brennecke Gale (prose) loves drinking coffee and listening to the wonderful stories her friends tell her.

Tai Kao-Sowa (poetry) is masters student at Stanford. He enjoys making acorn pancakes and hoshigaki.

Charles Li (prose) is a sophomore who enjoys creative writing and playing classical piano. In his free time, he likes to take naps and eat snacks.

Aden McCracken (poetry) is a current sophomore studying Anthropology, Creative Writing, and Interdisciplinary Arts. His work has previously been published in Stanford’s Leland Quarterly and Euonia Review.

Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Naomi Mo (poetry) is a five-footseven hodge podge of engineering mishaps, adventurous inclinations, and poetic tendencies. She enjoys creating circuited magic wands to activate the lamps in her dorm, getting lost on hikes, playing marimba with two mallets in each hand, and overanalyzing J.R.R. Tolkien’s

Leland Quarterly | Fall 2022

Middle Earth lore. She is a sophomore currently deciding between studying mechanical or electrical engineering, but when she’s not building (or breaking) things, she finds her greatest solace in words— she hopes the honesty and introspection in her own will resonate with whoever reads them.

Diego Rafael Pérez (he/him) (visual art) is a senior from Santa Barbara studying Biology with a concentration in Ecology. He likes to make art when he can.

David Toomer (poetry) is a poet from the metro DC area and a senior at Stanford University. Their poetry frequently explores memory, nature, and the various strains on familial relationships. David currently serves as a co-director for Stanford’s Spoken Word Collective. You can find him on Instagram @davidjtoomer.

Sarah Yao (visual art) is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science and Product Design. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, skiing, and exploring art museums around the Bay Area.

Where do you want to see LQ head in the future? How can we continue to grow, increase our accessibility, and support the artistic community at Stanford? Drop us a line at lelandquarterly@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram @stanfordlelandquarterly.

Leland Quarterly | Fall 2022

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