Pigsty

that nobody else can hear a deep thumping noise that I feel bouncing around in the pit of my stomach. It takes me back to lives once lived and to new stories waiting to fill up my cup deprived of wonder. I have my own little reality, one that shifts and changes against the winds of the world the world that wants the Black woman to not look in. Sway hip from one side to the other, bouncing my merry way into worlds that you 'll never get to see. There goes that Black woman and the personas she takes on, always turning and looking in. In to where Victoria and Charlotte expand worlds where the Black woman looking in is safe.

The Wayne Literary Review: Escapism

Jackie Flick

consider how rotting begins below the skin of something entirely healthy

consider the process of decomposition while these walls begin to mold

consider how you ’ ve wound up with no protection in this useless body that demands a savior seemed silly to plan for infinity in such a finite slice of atmosphere

consider how some foods smell worse than others as they go bad

consider all these fallen idols you ’ll never have the chance to consume

consider the stench coming from the damp heart of this house flowing up in cracks between floorboards pricking the nostrils, stiffening the spine

consider my mother ’ s bedroom my baby teeth in a jar

The Wayne Literary Review: Escapism