FLEDGLING- Issue One (07/19/2020)

Image Source: Mike Harre/Flickr

breakfast

Written by Jessica Kim

every morning we sit 

in front of a bowl of alphabet soup 

pondering over which letters

to eat. should we eat the ones 

which spell out our names for us, 

when we do not even know 

how to read? we are still 

spoonfed on high chairs,

crunching on the remains

of identity. we outgrow letters, 

instead eating words: 

always craving for more than 

a mouthful. and soon they dissolve 

in the esophagus, leaving us 

choking on the remnants

of childhood. we have tasted the bitter 

sweet libation of poetry, the subtlety 

that no one looks twice at, 

devouring a couplet while crumbs 

trickle into the crevices

left by the twenty-six letters

of the alphabet 

that grows inside us.

Author Bio: Jessica Kim is a poet based in Los Angeles, California. Her works appear or are forthcoming inNational Poetry Quarterly, Eunoia Review, Clover & White, Perhappened, and many more. She loves all things historical and sour.

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Putrid Poetry

Written by Grace Nask

Sometimes, when the world becomes too much on the

Inside, it all comes out. I lean over the toilet bowl on 

My knees, hair pressing against my sweaty skin, and

Retch it away.

It comes out into the water--the

Vomit the tears the sweat the laughter the breathless nothing that

Escalates into everything, the yellow-brown poetry. All of it pours

Gritty and sticky from my mouth

Into the bowl. I taste it over again, every memory, every moment leading

To this bitter renewal.

Please, don’t ever let the words “I am alone” flow

Out of your mouth, because here I am, 

Heart and soul all yours,

Spewed out onto the page.

Author Bio: Grace Nask is a Hufflepuff who wishes she could turn into a cat. She will be attending the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference in the fall and will also have two poems titled “The Power of the Sun” and “Twinkle, Little Star, Until You Fade Out” published by Down in the Dirt Literary Magazine in December. One could learn more about her by visiting her website at https://gracenask.wixsite.com/books and her WattPad (under Grace Nask) and Facebook (as Grace Nask’s Books and Manuscripts) profiles.

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