ꔫThe Cobweb Petal ꔫ: Issue 1 by thecobwebp3tal

THE COBWEB PETAL ✩

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

✩ INTRODUCTION ★ 3 ‘THE COBWEB PETAL’ - COLLAGE ★ 4 ISSUE QUOTE ★ 5 CLEOME SPECIMEN TARANTULA

★6 ★7 ★8

THE BUG WORD SHUFFLE ★ 9 MILKWEED ★ 10 PHANTOM PAINS★ 10 BELLY ★ 10 “EYE, TARANTULA” - COLLAGE★ 11 SCARAB ★ 12 WEB ★ 12 DEATH HEAD HAWK ★ 12 EARTHWORM ★ 12 INSECT FACT! ★ 13 THE COBWEB TOP 10 ★ 14 ‘EYELIDS’ - COLLAGE ★ 15 KNIFE EYELIDS PETALS

★ 16 ★ 16 ★ 16

FLOWER FACT! ★ 17 ‘TUMBLR’ COLLAGE ★ 18 CUCULIDAE ★ 19 IMAGO ★ 20 RORSCHACH INSECT TEST ★ 21 PETAL PLAYLIST! ★ 22 MEET THE AUTHOR ★ 23

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

Hi, all! This right here is the inaugural Issue ✩ of The Cobweb Petal. The Cobweb Petal was created as a means to express my most creative self and to divulge in my biggest inspirations which are — flowers and insects. Unceremoniously entitled, ‘Eye Tarantula’, I will be exploring insectile and flower metaphors in this issue and playing around with techniques that will aptly either make the reader’s skin crawl or subsequently fall in love. If you by chance like my stuff and want to stay tuned for more releases, please feel free to check out any of the links listed below or contact The Cobweb Petal’s email directly. I hope that in the future, I will be able to feature other writers and artists as well as mine but for now, it’s all me. *Please no stealing, any reposts or screengrabs should be attributed to my name and The Cobweb Petal’s zine name.

SINCERELY ✩ , BRIANNA JO HOBSON

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

THE//COBWEB//PETAL 4

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1 ♡`°CLEOME Stuck under the thumb of an imaginary man He keeps me under his fingernail Because he can When he turns away, I puke in blue In a way, he is so charming I am awake because of him He constantly tells me Sadness gives me a stomach ache Though I have pills for it; a remedy I can drown it away Still, I’m not going anywhere All I do is swim in place Someday I'll finally drown Spiders crawling up and down my thighs and legs, They are my only friends I climb inside their tiny webs I don't cry in front of her She’s not my mother anymore I’m not her baby anymore She doesn't know me anymore In this act of revelation I have cremated them Picked apart their maggot eggs The spiders aren't happy about that When I am near the end The little limpid strings comfort me I don't give them a name They are not my pets

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1 The cleome coil above me With eight legs so lonely Their silk entraps me, I cocoon myself Without them I’m not the spine or the same I sit still in doubt of the plants that give me clout Down the drain, I wash them out The spiders are all predators They prey on me and smaller insects I have insecticide for them I’ll kill them when I'm happy SPECIMEN The insect cannot breathe Behind the glass that has captured it You can't just make it into a necklace and display it on your mantle That's barbaric and inhuman The spider cries milk for all its siblings His mate will now eat him leaving behind abdomen and pink blisters “You can't just taxidermy pain” Says the web to the captured specimen 7

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1 TARANTULA The eyes have it, doubled over like a kaleidoscope eyelid trap My tarantula, my gaping heart, my arachnid map My pesticide, my envious knife slice There's a stubborn mound of flesh that only beats for you There's a stiff pile of organs that only eviscerates for you All eight fingers spread apart All eight arms crossed out All eight numbers chained by a cord Empty dial tone, ties a slipknot It's been years since you crawled up my wall in the dark Looking for corners to stretch and lay yourself It's been years since I've thought of you, I choke with the thought of your venom I could have sworn, you had arachnophobia Fear of spiderwebs, children and commitment to getting hurt I was wrong, I was your granulated fly trapped in a web for some nights I was the victim cursed with poor eyesight The eyes have it now, they see all, feel nothing. You can have all of me, all eight appendages laid out bare and doused with kerosene I surrender solely to your heart Promise me you'll take it easy when you pull my legs a p a r t

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*ANSWER SHEET - spider, butterfly, insect, bug, moth, imago, larvae, beetle, grasshopper, cicada,, worm, cricket, stinger, cockroach,, wasp, mosquito, praying mantis, maggot, parasite, ladybug.

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

MILKWEED The butterfly doesn't like When you tear wings like curtains It shows all the neighbors What's inside the Little house of horrors It can't fly straight With its head stitched beside and When it gets angry, It cuts you out of tepid stomach You won't feel anything, When the sky is full of them; Monarch, death hawk, swallowtail The colors all blinded Eating caterpillars will stunt your growth, they're premature, rotten fear inside of You stupid gardener, It's just a spider. PHANTOM PAINS She felt a kick Two legs and half a fist They warned her that it might lay eggs inside her But she thought it looked far too sweet not to have a family

BELLY Hopeless butterflies There’s a fluttering inside Cut myself open

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EYE, TARANTULA

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1 SCARAB Inside were all the same, Burnt flowers and put out cigarettes shoved down the hole of the sink, drain Pesticide slain insects Jewel beetle, with its soul exoskeleton crushed The deepest blues are black — Black like the scab on my lip Blue like the swollen eye I blink I'll never talk again as long as I live, I'm a survivor not a victim.

WEB Six ways to crawl wall, I was jealous of it all, Six ways to trap you.

DEATH HEAD HAWK A single black moth, On my shower head, it lands. Death rains down on me.

EARTHWORM Earthworm buries head, Body parts grow back when split. Dirt is point of view

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! ✩ The oRChid Praying Mantis ✩ The *orchid praying mantis has managed to encapsulate two things which are two in essense of this zine; both flowers and insects.

The orchid praying mantis otherwise known as Hymenopus coronatus, mimics an orchid flower and is most commonly found in tropical/rain forests of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia etc. This species is characterized by brilliant colouring and a structure finely adapted for camouflage, mimicking parts of the orchid flower. The four legs resemble flower petals, when moving, walking and capturing prey. As with most animals and insects, the males are almost half the size of the females. This is mostly due to the female predatory selection that is most common with praying mantis species. The men are smaller so they can be eaten. Orchid mantises can catch very large prey and have been known to prey on large butterflies twice their size. I love both praying mantises and butterflies so that's a significant bummer but I guess, that' is the circle of life. Their arms are referred to as 'toothed' which in itself is very cool. The mantis perfects its camolouge with thin, flattened limbs which resemble petals of orchids. They are sem-opalescent, and slightly crystalline when in full decoy mode. The mantis' trap-decoy sequence much resembles a venus flytrap or carrion flower. Which lures prey by seeming harmless and plant-like. Venus fly traps and carrion flowers are plants though, this particular mantis is copying the tactic. Its diet consists of small insects, including crickets, flies, fruit flies, beetles, and stinging insects such as bees. They prefer butterflies from the lepidopteran species, first and foremost.Like many other mantises, it is aggressive and oftentimes cannibalistic. But flower mantises are the species of praying mantises that mimic flowers.

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✩ THE COBWEB TOP TEN ✩

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

“The eyelids are all blinking but all I see is you.”

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

KNIFE All my life I've been a knife — Now that I have sadly passed away, I want my heartless sack cremated. Perhaps death will lessen fear of the unknown Perhaps it will suture open wounds Perhaps it will spiderweb tension, possess my possessions and acquire harm The choice I have made, To pull the knife from my back and uninvite you to the funeral To uninvite you to a life unfulfilled Is perhaps sadder than any strained relationship we have shared,

EYELIDS There's maggots in my body’s breakup, Corpse makeup to hide my visceral shame, I'm all eyes, from here, so eternally lachrymose — vomited my heart, eyes, eyelashes and pupils too, If I told the truth, you'd sue, you'd sue— The eyelids are blinking, but all I see is you.

PETALS I just want to be okay I want to eat petals and not get sick I want to cut myself and not bleed I want to just be okay.

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

The Asian Bleeding Heart or Lamprocapnos spectabilis, is a species of flowering plant in the poppy family, native to countries like China, Korea and Japan and Siberia. It's noted for its droopy heart shaped petals. Another name for the bleeding heart is "heart flower" and "lady-in-a-bath". The flowers strikingly resemble the conventional heart shape, with a droplet beneath – hence the common name. The Bleeding Heart was introduced from Asia into England in the 1800s and is perennial, making it essentially, a common spring flower. In some cultures, the bleeding heart flower can represent spurned or rejected love. However, it can also simply symbolize feeling compassion and love for everything in creation. It also signifies the expression of open feelings. Pink bleeding heart flowers tend to commonly symbolize kindness, subtle, love, and romance. The white bleeding hearts, symbolize for innocence and red petals, naturally for lust/passion. For example, there goes a story of rejection, to which the bleeding heart is attached, about a prince , courting a princess, who is rejected, which leads to the prince plunging a dagger through his heart and bleeding on the flower. “The princess, realizing too late that she did love the prince, cried out, "My heart shall bleed for my prince forever more!" and her heart bleeds to this day.”

* AUTHOR’S NOTE - I once wrote a poem called "Hemorrhage (Bleeding Heart)", so, maybe the subject of issue ☆2 will be, flower meanings and their symbolism, as for which I have loads of work.

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✩ black-hearted-bat.tumblr.com ✩

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1 CULICIDAE Egg, larva, pupae I was never an adult I was a diptera, A little fly taken advantage of On my chest, a mosquito lands Two lopsided labium grow A slender body houses filth and vertigo First a woman, then a heavy flow Like a mosquito bite, I must become violent, then swollen Blood vessels rise to the surface— These bites are a purple boil Tulips castrated, stitched and forced open Like a leaf, I am penetrated foliage My muscles, my sodden tissues, They're allergic to moisture They have a hatred for organs Ripe for eight years than plucked and stolen, The survival rate is tenuous and bloated With cartilage and tendons unbroken I hear everything and feel nothing I've learned to fight and forget everyone Spit is suspended in slow motion, Like a milk web, it allures and traps innocence "I should have never followed you" "I should have swatted away what was between us" Like a mosquito bite, I must become swollen Like a flower smushed and stepped on, I will grow again Like malaria manifested, I will infest again

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

I have begun to realize— Mosquito bites don't heal very well.

IMAGO You’re her split image. Imago doused with insect repellent, So schizophrenic, it’s genetic. Though you repel me, I will never ache or repent. Cut off my six legs and they always grow back. I will never submit, neither to you nor To the maggots nestled within chest. I will never bow to the worm kisses made in cochineal bird nests. The moth-wing lashes on my back will never match The tracings of veins on your butterfly eyelids. When flowers grow out of intestines, I’ll still be here, as a vector bloom out of a cut, Forever caterpillar, cyclical in chrysalis.

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

*SONG x ARTIST/BAND

You can find the whole playlist here:

-https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5MB7wq6UNtYL5KAtgW2oKO

THE COBWEB PETAL ♡ ISSUE 1

MEET THE AUTHOR

Brianna Jo Hobson is a gothic fiction writer from the Bronx. When not watching horror flicks and doing crossword puzzles in bed - she is exploring spooky nooks of her neighborhood and collecting dead insects on her windowsill. Hobson's poetry and short story work has been featured in Laguardia Community College's literary and arts journal - The Lit before and she

continues to develop creative work both inside and outside of both poetry & prose. Her interests encompass topics of taxidermy, entomology, mortuary science, and cemetery photography. Hobson plans to be a full-time book editor and later, to procure her Bachelor's from York College and then an MFA degree in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. You can find her on personal Instagram at @m0thluv ✩ OFFICIAL//♡//LINKS ✩ Email - thecobwebp3tal@gmail.com Instagram - @thecobwebp3tal

Blog - thecobwebpetalzine.blogspot.com