Rachel Turney
Summer 2025 | Poetry
Give Me My Manhattan
Give me the city at 3am
The buzz of 5th
As if the very sidewalk has energy
Give me ramen and beer on Grace Street
Give me a steak at Peter Luger
Give me a cold walk on the Brooklyn Bridge
Give me spiraling stairs and
Impressionism, abstract, realism
A drink and marching Madeline
The skyline and the park
A fruit stand in Chinatown
Bottle of beer in a brown paper bag on the train
I want the lights and noise
I want the spills of theatre goers
The curtains in the doorways in winter
Give me a canopied rooftop
A basement concert
Drinks with glowing neon lights in the bottom
A smoke-filled room
A circus
Give me Yes
Bushwick in blues and greens
A DJ
A sunken dance floor
A line outside a white brick building
Give me a catacomb of techno
A monolith of music
Portal to another universe
But make sure you return me to
My Manhattan
Rachel Turney, Ed.D. (she/her) is an educator and artist located in Denver. Her poems, research articles, drawings, and photography can be found in a variety of publications. Rachel is passionate about immigrant rights, teacher support, and empowering other artists. She is a Writers’ Hour prize winner and her photography can be found on a few magazine covers. The Poetry Lighthouse will publish her full-length collection Record Player Life in the coming months. Stay tuned and keep writing!
Website: turneytalks.com Instagram: @turneytalks Bluesky: @rachelturney