Size / / /

tell me how many men

must i have roll off me

in the night and wake

to find my husbands dead again?

black widowed into whoredom,

i am a patient woman, waiting

lifetimes, sitting on the side of the road,

ready to grasp with both hands

a lonely soul needing night-comfort.

there is a journey

through the realm of curses,

barrenness to push

in front of you—a broken cart,

God's displeasure,

call it what you will.

still, i plan to take the lion by the mane

and wrestle him till dawn,

will wear his bracelet

and pretty trinkets

until twins claw their way

into history, scarlet bound.

every step,

a bruise closer

to the serpent's head.




Nancy Hightower lectures on the rhetorics of the grotesque and fantastic in art, film, and literature. She is an art columnist for Weird Fiction Review and has had work published in Word Riot, Prick of the Spindle, storySouth, and Bourbon Penn, among others.
Current Issue
4 Nov 2024

“Did you know,” the witch says, “that a witch has no heart of her own?”
Outsiders, Off-worlders {how quickly one carves out a corner of the cosmos, / claims a singular celestial body as [o u r s] in the scope of infinity}
Lunar enby folks across here
Wednesday: The 2024 Ignyte Award for Best Novel Shortlist, Part Two 
Friday: A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon 
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
Issue 30 Sep 2024
Issue 23 Sep 2024
By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
Issue 9 Sep 2024
Issue 2 Sep 2024
Issue 26 Aug 2024
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