Orange Blush Zine │ Issue 7 / July '21 by orangeblushzine

issue 7 / july ‘21

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

Divine Continuance by Richard LeDue Cupid forgot Valentine’s Day this year. He was too busy refilling the hand sanitizer stations on Mount Olympus, while Zeus worked from home, counting toilet paper rolls and sending daily emails to other deities, hoping they'd write back, but they rarely did. Of course, everyone was tense since Hercules was fired in December for vacationing out of country. He was also photographed talking to Medusa without wearing a mask. The worse though, was Hades sneaking back into Hades (without quarantining) to see his wife and dog, but now that there's a vaccine, people might become more forgiving.

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Poem Poem by Richard LeDue Sometimes, I write better at night, wrapped in darkness like a reckless lover who doesn't care if the curtains are open, letting the neighbours see in, except they're in bed, sleeping through their dreams. Sometimes, I write best in daylight, hoping no one knocks on my door, just wanting to be left alone, even cursing the sun for warming my lonely naked feet and making me feel tired.

issue 7 / july ‘21

Suburban Heights by Anastasiya Sukhenko the kids’ dreams reach far past their popcorn ceilings beyond the suburban streetlights that burn holes in their wings searching for the same feelings found in different things they run to each crossroads a little faster— each step is a lesson, remember your foundation: your feet are for running not dancing keep them firm on the ground! you shouldn’t be in the clouds when your wings catch fire

orange blush zine

Life on the shore by Anastasiya Sukhenko is a life in-between the girl with whiter teeth and eyes made of sapphires sprinkled jade, and the girl crafted from ash slashing the dragons with a sword forged from blood This is the secret of survival silver screen kind of dreams keep the pills and the shadows hidden in the smoke I’ve learned to keep my feet below the make-believe sand, and my head turned towards the horizon

issue 7 / july ‘21

by Caitlin Noble

orange blush zine

The violin had been thrown from the window by Saskia McCracken Mina crouched on the pavement over the broken wooden body. She did not know which of them had done it, only that it was her fault. She had gone too far, shouted at her sister, said she was working too hard, starving herself. Said the orchestra wasn’t worth it. She must stop. She must eat. Her happiness had cost her her happiness.

Upstairs Juliet laughed with relief. She was done. No more rehearsals into the long dark evenings, no more performances in the pit beneath the stage, cramped arms, no more arguments with the conductor about the tempo. She would eat the cake Mina had bought her. It was their birthday after all.

issue 7 / july ‘21

Blunt Remembrance by Anastasiya Sukhenko i imagined raspberry jam kisses and a velvet touch in fade-out vision

it was —jump cut

memories

from specter hands touched a kind of cut that bled more from kisses

orange blush zine

by Stephanie Ellis

issue 7 / july ‘21

Voice by Natalie Marino In pink light between night and dawn I lose your breath. Everything is suddenly still, even the bones of the sky.

You chose my birth, and watched me walk in the sun, and then into the world’s grief. We were not new together, though I thought it so the first time I became mesmerized by hummingbirds. You cannot tell me how much I cost you, I cannot define your absence. Your voice is an echo in trees.

orange blush zine

lines by Jennifer Yang and i thought i’d felt for him the most. yet, somehow, when the letters and words and lines came out, they came out not—not fiercely eloquent, nor eloquently fierce, as i had hoped, but clunky. awkward. i guess it makes sense; it’s the way he made me feel. he was always too much. meant to shine in the same way i was meant to blend into the darkness. but it was frustrating, to say the least. line after line crossed out, imprisonment for forgoing their one duty of expressing my abhorrence for this boy. the absolute resentment for making me feel as he did, and then making me feel again in another way, and then another and another and another. because how dare he. how dare he make me feel this way and then look away a moment later like it meant nothing. how dare he ruin me and not inflict the same ruination upon himself. its unfair its unfair its unfair its unfair its un

issue 7 / july ‘21

and the lines. the lines were not doing their due diligence and the frustration was too much. i was begging them to only. only share a little of the pain i felt. take some of the burden off of my shoulders. yet take my burden they wouldn’t. in the end, every line was imprisoned then lost then forgotten. and i was atlas and i was alone. but. the lines loved the girl. and it was all very strange because the girl i did not feel strongly for, only admired a little. was even a little jealous of. yet the lines wrapped their ends and curves around the girl warmly, saying yes. i will take this one. i will pillage your mind of every instance of her and translate them all to beautiful, beautiful poetry. this girl that you do not feel strongly for, only admired a little. was even a little jealous of. because her brilliance will take her far, far away from you. and you will only have this wonderful little poem to remember her by. i let the lines do as they will.

orange blush zine

by Marjorie Gaber 18

issue 7 / july ‘21

Artist's Statement from The Woman in an Imaginary Painting by Tom Montag Let me say I loved her in that moment she glowed. That's what art is: love in the face

of beauty. I would have touched her, yes, in the intense heat of her pose, but touching her would break something -I mean you can want her all you want, but wanting is not art. You cannot own what you do not have, and you cannot have what she keeps for herself.

orange blush zine

by Jill Burrow

issue 7 / july ‘21

Juice by Hibah Shabkhez A clumsy spill, and the orange ocean Welling about my feet turns the bland roof Into a well, a trove, a commotion Of warring colours that is concrete proof Worlds flip when inner battles rage outside, Roofs into floors are curled. They jab with shrouds that perish as they soak Up my roof-Atlantis. The earth's circle Is a semi again, as sorries choke Me. They wave me aside, flushing purple With self-hate for standing idly beside Those erasing a world.

orange blush zine

Instinct by Alexandra McManus I don’t know if I want you. But with the certainty of a goose flying South to the unknown, somewhere deep in my bones tells me that although I’m terrified to lose you,

in the same way a salmon follows a magnetic field that they could never understand: I am being called upstream.

issue 7 / july ‘21

definition by Zoe Cunniffe i used to define my life in little lines. cracks between bathroom tiles, locker latches and worn-in roads. i used to define my life in rhythms, in rippled shower water and the cadence of your voice. i used to define my life as a pathway, up and up and up, higher and higher, until the gravity slipped out from under me and my feet no longer touched earth. there is nothing left to define it by. there is no one left to call.

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clandestine (adj.) by Alexandra Maria can’t you admit it? look me in the eyes, then, and try to tell me that you never meant for this to happen. god, don’t make that face, as if you’re not my equal here. as if we didn’t both play so recklessly with more hearts than our own on the line. i’m only as much the villain as you are, this time: no more a temptress than you were a man so easily tempted. (aren’t you proud of what you’ve done? doesn’t my lipgloss taste like justice?)

issue 7 / july ‘21

by Marjorie Gaber

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

Alexandra Maria Alexandra Maria (she/they) is an emerging poet and aspiring teacher from Liverpool, UK who laughs like an air raid siren and sleeps through her alarms. When she’s not writing, she can be found scaring away other customers at her favourite café or on Twitter @_ohalexandra.

Alexandra McManus Alexandra McManus is a 21-year-old college student studying Communications with a minor in Editing & Publishing. Her work has been featured in other journals such as The Honey Mag, Disobedient, and The Mezzazine. Keep up with her at @al_mcman on Instagram or @lalamcman on Twitter.

Anastasiya Sunkhenko Anastasiya Sukhenko is a writer and a self-taught photographer. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in creative writing at the University of South Florida. She has publications at For Women Who Roar®, the West Trade Review, and Luna Station Quarterly. You can find more of her work on Instagram @anasukhenko.

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Hibah Shabkhez Hibah Shabkhez is a writer of the half-yo literary tradition, an erratic language-learning enthusiast, and a happily eccentric blogger from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work has previously appeared in Bandit Fiction, Shot Glass Journal, Across The Margin, Panoplyzine, Feral, Literati Magazine, and a number of other literary magazines. Studying life, languages and literature from a comparative perspective across linguistic and cultural boundaries holds a particular fascination for her. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/HibahShabkhez

Jennifer Yang Jennifer Yang is currently a senior in high school. In her free time, she enjoys writing, making spam musubi, and composing music.

Natalie Marino Natalie Marino is a mother, writer, and physician. She graduated with a BA in American Literature from UCLA. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Barren Magazine, Capsule Stories, Emerge Literary Journal, Floodlight Editions, Literary Mama, Moria Online, Re-side, and elsewhere. She lives in Thousand Oaks, California.

issue 7 / july ‘21

Richard LeDue Richard LeDue was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, but currently lives in Norway House, Manitoba with his wife and son. His poems have appeared in various publications throughout 2020, and more work is forthcoming throughout 2021. His chapbook, “The Loneliest Age,” was released in autumn 2020 from Kelsay Books.

Saskia McCracken Saskia McCracken is a writer and editor based in Glasgow. Her poetry and short fiction has been published in Datableed, Amberflora, SPAM zine, -algia, BlueHouse Journal, Zarf, The New Writer, Matraga, Adjacent Pineapple, Front Horse, and others, and anthologised in The Apprentice Anthology (SPAM Press 2020 and Glasgow (Dostoyevsky Wannabe 2021). @SaskiadeRM

Tom Montag Tom Montag's books of poetry include: Making Hay & Other Poems; Middle Ground; The Big Book of Ben Zen; In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013; This Wrecked World; The Miles No One Wants; Imagination's Place; Love Poems; and Seventy at Seventy. His poem 'Lecturing My Daughter in Her First Fall Rain' has been permanently incorporated into the design of the Milwaukee Convention Center. He blogs at The Middlewesterner. With David Graham he recently coedited Local News: Poetry About Small Towns. 31

orange blush zine

Zoe Cunniffe Zoe Cunniffe is a poet and singer-songwriter from Washington, DC. She has previously been published in literary journals such as Meniscus and The Showbear Family Circus, and she can be found on Instagram at @there.are.stillbeautifulthings.

issue 7 / july ‘21

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

Komal Keshran Komal Keshran is a young artist from Malaysia. Their work has appeared in Ink Drinkers Poetry, APIARY Magazine, The Write Launch and Apeiron Review among others. They are also the creator and editor of Orange Blush Zine. You can find them in their little corner of the world, either talking to their houseplants or hosting online theatre. Read their work online at malandthemoon.tumblr.com/poetry.

Jack Joseph Jack Joseph is a fine art student at Plymouth College of Art, England. His work often references his experience with dysphoria and societal expectations of masculinity and femininity, beauty and the ugly, developing distinct aesthetics through unique techniques. His work is created through a multifaceted process of photography, illustration, animation and other digital mediums; forming imagery which appears to be in some liminal space and often grotesque, unsettling or peculiar.

Sophia William Sophia William is a psychology student and executive team member at Orange Blush Zine. She's here for the vibes.

orange blush zine

Shekinah Louis Shekinah Louis has always been fascinated by how words can possess such a powerful hold on someone's life, let alone their moods. Words have had a humongous impact in her life since her early teens, especially in the form of poetry and prose. Shekinah hopes to embody that in their own work, and wishes to write pieces that invoke strong emotions, and deals with the feelings that one would normally wish— or hope— to avoid.

Charlotte Todd Charlotte Todd is an eighteen-year-old writer currently based in London, England. She is hugely fascinated by both people and the human experience, a concept which she attempts to decipher in her writing. Charlotte’s work is playful and eccentric yet still retains eloquence speaking from both personal experience and curiosity.

Devanshi Singh Devanshi Singh has always loved words and their ability to transform and empower people so completely. They are a seventeen-year-old writer, and their work reflects their experiences with fluidity, growth and change – and how we can find beauty in that. They hope to make art out of their words that will make people feel alive, and look for the beauty they wouldn’t normally notice.

issue 7 / july ‘21

Phoebe Anson Phoebe Anson (she/her) is a recent graduate of English Literature from the University of Sheffield. She is currently taking a year away from studies, working as a support worker, before she goes back to university to do a Master’s degree. Phoebe’s work explores a range of themes from the female body to animal theory to deconstructions of the (human) self. Phoebe has previously been published in Orange Blush Zine, as well as other publications like Illagrypho Press, Streetcake Magazine, Quince Map, and Nymphs publications.

Chelsea Akpan Chelsea Akpan is a Nigerian-born cartoonist that focuses on bringing bold colors and exaggerative shapes together to create distinct and playful illustrative work. Her work speaks to her personal experiences and portrays it in a humorous and whimsical way.

Ian Long Ian Long is an artist currently studying illustration at Montclair State University in New Jersey, USA. They enjoy creating narrative pieces by using a combination of bold colors, textured brushes, and paper overlays. In their free time, you can find Ian reading, taking walks, antique shopping, or watching reality TV with their roommates.

orange blush zine

Marjorie Gaber Marjorie Gaber is an illustrator, writer, and cartoonist currently based in Dearborn, Michigan. She writes a lot of autobio comics these days focusing on her day to day life in her hometown; she also likes to make works exploring queer identity, horror, escapism, and, when the mood strikes, cowgirls. She also Has A Lot of Thoughts about robots.

Lorena Horng Lorena is a student from Texas, USA with a love for all things visual arts. She spends most of her free time either painting or staring at paintings, and can often be found wandering around a grocery store or finding thematic parallels between modern art and art history.

Caitlin Noble Caitlin is an illustrator based in Falmouth, Cornwall. After completing her Foundation Art and Design Cert HE in UWTSD 2020- Caitlin began studying a BA in Illustration at Falmouth University, following her passion for art and drawing- and creating striking visual imagery both the artist and audience can lose themselves in. Greatly inspired by line and patternmuch of Caitlin’s practice in centred around detail in mesmerising designs.

issue 7 / july ‘21

Chloe Harnett-Hargrove The letter 'b' no longer works in her keyboard so she has to constantly copy and paste one from wherever she can find it. She has a list of very specific things she wishes she were, but only manages to show up as vague and ambiguous. She wants to draw the comic that dethrones Watchmen. *ducks* - 2:14 am

But really, Chloe’s been self-publishing for a while now and affords her comix habit with a graphic design job. Occasionally (as in when she gets up the nerve), Chloe enters art shows with her work. Most recently, she was a semi-finalist in Broken Pencil's Indie Illustrator's Death-Match.

Stephanie Ellis Stephanie Ellis is an illustrator based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her work is largely inspired by the natural world, storytelling, and her midwest upbringing. Her paintings often are character driven and feature a variety of organic shapes and objects. She creates these worlds with familiar flora and fauna while also incorporating strange or fantasy elements.

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

orange blush zine

issue 7 / july ‘21

orange blush zine