Size / / /

Content warning:


as I unspool an onion. A line on a napkin
    to square to cube to—something else. Something
I can’t picture yet. Dad smiles with the duty
    of instillation. Broadening. Dad lives
in an apartment while he looks

for a house. The fried onion is a flower
    or a half-grated mouth. In another dimension
we are in the same house. I hear the fights
    through bathroom vents. Dad adds another
right angle to all his angles—he is something

else. Dad is an interdimensional being
    existing in all worlds. The other families
eating their onions turn to ash as Dad
    unspools. Dad says: I picked
this world
, even though he has no house.

Dad pulls a hypercube out of the napkin-
    drawing. Have you ever seen something
you have no ability to know? Dad says:
        Would you like to go somewhere
else?
I think of being stick-figure girl

or something in Dad’s impossible shape. Dad’s
    endless black eyebrows. Dad’s thousand eyes,
Dad’s many-jointed fingers with the blood
    at the corners—he gnaws his cuticles
in every dimension. Offering me life

in a different shape. I think I’ll stay, I say,
    even though he has no house. Dad collapses
into the appropriate dimensions. Smiles.
    Flags down the waiter
                for the check.

 

 

[Editor’s Note: Publication of this poem was made possible by a gift from Jordan Hirsch during our annual Kickstarter.]



Maura O'Dea (she/her) is a poet and artist from Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the Executive Editor of earthwords: the undergraduate literary review at the University of Iowa, where she is completing her Bachelor's in English and Spanish. You can find more of her work in other undergraduate literary magazines, including InkLit and Wilder Things, and online at Scrawl Place.
Current Issue
22 May 2023

IN THE CRUST DIRT IN WILLENDORF CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY FOUND ME I WAS SO CAREFUL TO HIDE
sustenance for body and mind / the plants are telling stories
So much of contemporary Star Trek is about looking at what happens to Utopia when it comes under strain.
If bad wine stays bad, isn’t that a good thing?
In this episode, we air an interview with the reviewer, editor, and critic Niall Harrison.
Issue 15 May 2023
Issue 8 May 2023
Issue 1 May 2023
Issue 24 Apr 2023
Issue 17 Apr 2023
Issue 10 Apr 2023
Issue 3 Apr 2023
Issue 27 Mar 2023
Issue 20 Mar 2023
Issue 13 Mar 2023
Load More
%d bloggers like this: