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So Rock created stone in his own image

in the image of Rock created he stone

one gender created he stone

and Rock spit on stone

and Rock said unto stone

Split yourself into many

and cover the earth

and stone did so and

some were fiery, eruptive and flowing

some were grainy, coarse and wind-strewn

some captured animals and

desiccated their spirits

entombing their skeletons in outline forever

and some buried animals by their force

but most were hard and enduring

so while animals lived and died upon them

they persisted

through the ages

calcite, seared the blazing orb of the sun,

sodalite, painted the sea-reflected-into-sky,

selenite, tinted the colorless echo of stars,

gaspeite, dyed the skin of rain-bringing frogs,

rhodochrosite, tinged the burn of cherry buds,

hematite, glazed the grittiness of soil,

malachite, hued the verdant of pasture lands,

and dolomite, banded the blood of human flesh,

until one day Rock called them home,

all his creation

strip-stippled into the stains of the rainbow

and shining over a barren earth.




Holly Cooley lives on an island called Paradise in a Florida lake. She has a PhD in Medieval and Victorian Literature. Her poems have been published by or will soon appear in Mythic Delirium, Goblin Fruit and Dragons, Knights & Angels.
Current Issue
16 Dec 2024

Across the train tracks from BWI station, a portal shimmered in the shade of a patch of tall trees. From her seat on a northbound train taking on passengers, Dottie watched a woman slip a note out of her pocket, place it under a rock, strip off her work uniform, then walk naked, smiling, into the portal.
exposing to the bone just how different we are
a body protesting thinks itself as a door out of a darkroom, a bullet, too.
In this episode of SH@25, Editor Kat Kourbeti sits down with Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li to discuss her foray into poetry, screenwriting, music composition and more, and also presents a reading of her two poems published in 2022, 'Ave Maria' and 'The Mezzanine'.
Issue 9 Dec 2024
Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 25 Nov 2024
Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 11 Nov 2024
Issue 4 Nov 2024
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
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