Content Warning: dark themes, bones
Vera Hadzic - sculptures
somehow, the trees beg us to touch them
here is a throne, wickered with oak roots
where the trembling of our fingers folds
into the creasing of the bark
by your feet lies an elk skull, thick-boned
with a mandible of white birch
an eye socket gluttonous with sifting snow
a snout tapering to tough blackened teeth
antlers that, when the wind is still, are crowned
with red berries and spider tensions
when I tire of the throne, I lean into this cradle
bark cupping my spine and pillars of trunk
rising on every side, looking up and up
until all fades to white skies
Vera Hadzic (she/her) is a writer from Ottawa, Ontario, studying at the University of Ottawa. In the past, her work has appeared in Crow & Cross Keys, Kissing Dynamite, and elsewhere. She is an editor for Wrongdoing Magazine and can be found on Twitter @HadzicVera.
Photograph: Woodlands by Arun Kapur
Enigmatic. Charismatic. Passionate. Lover of life and all truth that binds us together. Arun Kapur is a mental health advocate that uses the medium of the arts to raise awareness of stigmas and well-being. Through poetry and film, he aims to amplify untold stories of unheard voices.