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Content Warning: medical gaslighting
Veronica Ashenhurst – Art Therapy
Looking at Cézanne’s sketch, Boy Beset by Rats,
I feel kinship with the flailing boy, for
memory plagues me as a creature might—
sharp-toothed, squealing. I recall the hospital,
exhaustion stilling my limbs like venom.
The doctor claims I just believe I’m ill,
implying I chase pity. I’d like to drown
his words as if they were rodents from that sketch,
for the doctor is mistaken. But he
flicks his hair and looks so sure. My breath comes short.
I grip the book of Cézanne’s paintings, flip
past the boy, find a still life: the sea-blue vase,
three fruits, sunlight’s yellow magic. I sigh,
and for now, bitter memory darts away.
Veronica Ashenhurst has published both poetry and articles on legal education. Her poems appear in Health Affairs, MORIA Literary Magazine, Star 82 Review, and Wordgathering, among other journals. Her poetry has been nominated for the Best of the Net anthology.
Artwork: Spirit of the Waves by Audrey T. Carroll
Audrey T. Carroll (she/they) is the author of What Blooms in the Dark (ELJ Editions, 2024), The Gaia Hypothesis (Alien Buddha Press, 2024), Parts of Speech: A Disabled Dictionary (Alien Buddha Press, 2023), and In My Next Queer Life, I Want to Be (kith books, 2023). Her writing has appeared in Lost Balloon, CRAFT, JMWW, Bending Genres, and others. She is a bi/queer/genderqueer and disabled/chronically ill writer. She serves as a Fiction Editor for Chaotic Merge Magazine and Editor-in-Chief of Genrepunk Magazine. She can be found at http://AudreyTCarrollWrites.weebly.com and @AudreyTCarroll on Twitter/Instagram.
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