Cover Art by Jianna Justice, title art by Maddie Shea 1 Credits etc. 2 Maddie Shea (top) Gabriella Andino (bottom) 3 Jianna Justice 4 Jianna Justice 5 Mallory Harris 6 Leila Register (top), Maddie Shea (bottom) 7 Arianna Mantas 8 Poem by Gabriella Andino, art by Jianna Justice (top) and Maddie Shea (bottom) 9 Leila Register 10 Poem by Gabriella Andino, art by Maddie Shea 11 Maddie Shea
Editor’s Letter You know that feeling where you see hundreds or thousands of people every day but then there is one person or two people or some small percentage of that greater population that stands out to you in some way? Like they had really great hair, or y’all made really intense eye contact, etc? That’s sort of what this zine is about. Big thank you to all the wonderful and talened ladies who submitted their work <3 Thank you for checking this out :) - Maddie
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Respond Immediately Please I knew as soon as I spotted you at your grandma’s funeral. I didn’t approach you right away, though. I was with someone else. You started to notice me, looming in certain moments. I held your hands when you went skiing and got hypothermia. I made you shake. I was the frayed rope at summer camp when you climbed the wall, the rope that they all said would hold up until it didn’t and you plummeted. Do you remember my hand over your eyes in the ambulance? I was driving the car that you hit that night when you skidded on the ice. I gave them all to you: dented fender, twelve stitches, luck mistaken for immortality. I was the bartender on that night when you almost blurred yourself away. I was the next shot, waiting to crawl through your bloodstream. A botched transfusion to stop the machine. I’ve been here this whole time. The walnut on the mammogram, the wind that that pushed the tree through your window like a battering ram. Now, I sit beside your bed and read to you, twist the words inside of you. Drench your memories in water so that the colors smear and the paper melts. I distort the sounds until everyone is the airplane captain warning you that it’s just a little turbulence, at least that’s what you think he’s saying before the speaker cuts off, but he’ll be back. He has to be. I like to tease you. And I’m patient until I’m not. 5
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Criss crossed hands that sink in like canyons each kiss on my skin burned like a genuine apology you did call me baby, more than once. Say my nameâ&#x20AC;Śand turn over Let me in - letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s have no fear just fun and a sound sleep in no love just love
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Your kiss is 8:42 on a Summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s night Petals placed on a fallen bird, a memory I need to experience forever. 10
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