The Renaming

They knocked on my door

7:23 in the morning 

hungover from the obligatory 

shots of fire

I signed before I read,

anxious to get them off 

my front steps 

onto the next customer 

I glanced to the top

and saw the title: 

“Rename Columbus, Ohio

‘Flavortown’” 

We’re in the north 

no flavor, just 

salt and pepper occasionally 

sprinkled on our breasts 

No culture to steal from,

just buckeyes mashed into 

every slogan

every song

The cooking network

blasts from my

boyfriend-for-the-night’s

television;

A strange man screaming

his voice the light

beaming from the house

too far to follow. 


Cheyenne Hunt is a writer, coach, editor, and English teacher in Ohio. She holds degrees from Ohio Dominican University in the areas of English, Education, and Philosophy. Her work has appeared in Bone ‘n Ink Press and Gesture Magazine, where she won the Judith C. Mitchell Award for Creative Writing. She is inspired each day by the wonderful, the heartbroken, and the gut-wrenching. She tweets @cheyennekaylee_.

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