Secret Garden
2023-2024
Legacy Is Easier With Webbed Feet
By Alex Crowthers
By Alex Crowthers
a whisper in the wind follows ruffled feathers;
sputtered squawks lost by haunting lullabies threatening flooded frozen fractals
there’s a map we don’t see, we dare to know, they must follow.
embedded deep within great goose generations — a task so grand,
geographical separations don’t dare disturb them.
i, a human, admire this feat; a deliberate duty designated from delivery to death.
often i yearn to fly south, a straight shot to my famed fate.
but for now, i’ll settle spying canada’s bird namesake from afar;
myself lost, waiting for wind whispers that will guide me to my
fleeting, flightless future.
Girls and Goats
By Grace Finin
By Grace Finin
To persuade him that I was no willing subsite for girls and goats is to
wish that you could live and to do so without causes or cares. For
someone, I will always be savage enough to let them impress me for
not more than too many hours which would rather be spent in
isolation. As much as I don’t try, I don’t think I can reach the
gloriousness that they all swear upon me. Recently, mockery has felt
misused with no guidance in thought. And if I were to climb like they
say, I don’t think love would continue to be the same as it stands now.
Filled with shame, ashamed, I am not a present you enjoy
unwrapping. I am the loose bottlecap you kept from your father’s
drink the first night you realized that really any liquid is stronger than
blood.
When I dreamed as a girl, I wanted to no longer be seen. And then I
found out that if I was not seen, then there could be no help given if it
should be needed. I know all the exits; my casket is empty, but the
altar boys follow down only by the trace of my purges.
