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I’m a woman shaped creature
in that I am no woman.
“Creature,” she calls me, “Breathe deep.”
And I inhale the fumes she pumps into my container,
toxic, painless breath on my tongue.
“Creature,” she says, “Knock. It. Off.”
But I can’t stop moving,
or I’ll die, shark-like in nature.
I’m a containment breach waiting to happen
in that it’ll be horrifying when I get out.
When I get it together, I’ll be monstrous,
like a lioness when she’s prepared to hunt,
a cheetah braced to spring forward,
a crazed beast keen to trample, purge, and destroy.
“Monster,” she names me, “Come when you are called.
Obey my words and act like a lady.”
But I have no softness, no gentle manners.
I am no daughter, no mother, no sister or friend.
I’m a woman shaped creature.
About the Author
Claire Bernay is a creator. She loves pottery, writing, crocheting, and painting. When she is not creating art, literary or visual, she is reading. Claire wants to do everything but mostly make meaningful and pretty art. Her experiences bleed into her art and inspire her to create. Claire’s creative nonfiction has been published in The Southern Quill (2021). Her poetry has been published through The Southern Quill (2020), Kaleidoscope (2020), and Poems of Summer (2022).
a park around 7. and sunset. early march. sun bouncing up from the grass at all angles and this soft falling hill like a candleflame light and a saucer of warm liquid wax.
some dogs playing chasing. some people sitting out. my god – there are times in the world you'd be generous to offer a share of. and everyone's generous, passing out bottles of beer out of shopping bags, handfuls of loose cigarettes. ten-year-olds bike riding, teenagers kissing,
a woman, some distance off reading and smoking a joint. and that's spring air too, and the smell of it wafting occasionally
over: like cracked open greenhouses, crowding with mushrooms on wood. wet scents and plants mulching. composts and burning hot weather.
About the Author
D.S. Maolalai has been described by one editor as "a cosmopolitan poet" and by another as "prolific, bordering on incontinent." His poetry has received eleven nominations for Best of the Net and seven for the Pushcart Prize, and has been released in three collections; "Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden" (Encircle Press, 2016), "Sad Havoc Among the Birds" (Turas Press, 2019) and “Noble Rot” (Turas Press, 2022)