Poetry
hu li jing 狐狸精
by Wen Yu Yang in Issue Twelve, December 2023
they’d tell me
how much a fox’s honour is worth
without weighing it so why not
steal a boy’s honour
braid it in as
another triumph
bask in this
demonic glory
my mother
muzzle crimsoned in... Continue →
What You Find at the Center
by Elizabeth R McClellan in Issue Twelve, December 2023
after @notaleptic
six feet down and you sat
in the garden filling your notebooks
with scrawled labyrinths; circus tents
overlapping the paths and midways.
ten feet down and you cried
over some girl who... Continue →
The Princess and the Frog
by Archita Mittra in Issue Twelve, December 2023
is this how all things end?
with a croak, a hiss, broken glass—
some spilled wine, a sliver of blood
and slime, trailing ever after.
tell me something else, then.
where the frog never becomes a... Continue →
The Dome
by Elis Montgomery in Issue Twelve, December 2023
Molten air stifles, sea-thick
and as sickening. Pocked stones
become bowls I water with
weighted limbs. Drained pith, dry bones
in this park. All beyond thirst.
You could drink first but your eyes
are unseeing like they’re dried
open. One... Continue →
Teen in Recovery from Dystopian Books that Were Portals
by G.E. Woods in Issue Twelve, December 2023
Teach yourself joy,
the therapist sings to you, white strands splitting her black hair.
One paper heavier, you leave her office,
contemplating the self-care list she gifted you. Cursed you with.
‘Eat flowers. Be music. Make friends with beating hearts.
Ourasphaira giraldae Awakens
by H.V. Patterson in Issue Twelve, December 2023
Gods writ microscopic,
we are the children of extremes
chitin-clothed, long-dead spores enduring still,
ghosts of ghosts
a billion years dead
For millennia,
we collected your buried tribute
flesh, blood, bones
plastics, garbage,... Continue →
Made of Glass
by Anna Madden in Issue Twelve, December 2023
the air smells of brine and night spirits
of bare feet sinking into the orchard’s dark earth
where pink ladies dream standing upright
their old branches like my withered arms
and the sea of green I can’t see in the failing light
dark waves of bluegrass and mason... Continue →
Interstellar Catalog: Romantic Interlude
by Shana Ross in Issue Twelve, December 2023
On this world all the colors are named anew
with each child. I have a word for yellow &
a word for blue, but it will not help me talk
to another soul in this city. We point to
the sun & the sky and the piped icing
& buttercream roses on these... Continue →
For the attention of my future self
by Brian Hugenbruch in Issue Twelve, December 2023
While you are me, and I am almost you,
I cannot help but think you spin me lies.
I do not think that what we say is true.
Your letter's from our future—and we rise
to conquer bloody challenges ahead—
though you are me, and I am almost you.
Elegy for the Wood Nymphs
by Goran Lowie in Issue Twelve, December 2023
it starts with screams in summer.
there have been signs beforehand—
the trees have started to refuse the rain.
the sky did not submit and coated the trees,
unceasing, in layers of water.
water sits on the ground with open mouth,
waiting to be taken by the... Continue →