Art: "Reflection in Weird" by Robin Echo Young

Poetry: "I've Left" by Alyx Chandler

there is light       in my Spine

 

         there is bloody here and I am not careful

 

I love my scraps          irresistible in their ability

 

to shock     crack skylines   

 

my lineage has eaten mirrors        to satiate urges  

 

gone ghost to chill desire

 

how else have we survived so long      

 

in exile               I’m going again into my verbform

 

watch me fit myself like a worm 

 

here in earth’s dirt belly

 

my past is an army              

 

and I am one single worm   watch me   go

 

Published November 9th 2024

Alyx Chandler (she/her) is a writer from the South who received her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana, where she was a Richard Hugo Fellow and taught composition and poetry. Her poetry can be found in the Southern Poetry Anthology, Greensboro Review, The Penn Review, SWWIM, and elsewhere.

Based in Borrego Springs, artist Robin (Echo) Young has been working in mixed media since her 20’s, focusing mostly on collage and contemporary art making. Her focus on collage art using magazine clippings, masking tape, wallpaper, jewelry, feathers, foil etc. allows her to develop deep into the whimsical and intuitive.