Art: "The Village Inn" by Reilly Stasienko
Poetry: "Bright Tongues" by Meg Collins
Rolling off
A slick tongue of silver speed
Comes something else
Comes fire
Come flashes between friends.
Tell us we are not ghosts in this pit
Speaking soft tones
Crackling in the dust.
Maybe someday you’ll be able to etch out
A translatable verse,
A humming beat. I have stopped
Being able to tell if we talk, or limp-jump.
I tried
Telling you yesterday to turn the light
All the way up,
Until we broke the room
In two.
Tomorrow,
Perhaps our tongues will touch.
Tomorrow, Rolling off your lips,
Perhaps we will speak silent stares at the same time.
Published November 2th 2023
Meg Collins is a soon to be recipient of a Master’s of English from Carleton University. Her research focuses include queer fan studies and queer gothic and horror studies. She’s previously had poetry published in the Gideon Poetry Review and literary journal Fathom. She has also had longer journalistic work featured in the Dalhousie Gazette, as well as an original short form audio story featured in the Southill Stories collection.
Reilly Stasienko is a self taught artist from Ohio who currently lives and works out of Cincinnati. She is currently participating in a residency at The Mockbee. You can see more of her work here.