Content Warning: blood, violence, religion, dark themes

Robert Frede Kenter - We are Risen 2300.jpg

Angel Rosen – Paraliturgy

At the altar,

you drink what I pour.

A vulture waits at the door,

playing usher.

I hate/love you for the events described here within:

a. you loved me,

b. you didn’t want to love me,

c. I wanted you to love me,

d. you didn’t want to touch me,

e. I didn’t want you to touch me,

f. you touched me.

I filled medicine cups with blood

which exits from me at different sources

depending which spot of mine

you try to put a finger on.

I hate/love you for the events described here within:

a. I am face-to-snarling-face with the worst part of you playing host and I am shivering,

you are driving, and I am not sure I am going to get home.

b. You took me home.

c. You (summoned / cleaned up) my blood.

At the altar, I drink sparkling water

and make a toast with the vulture

who's just had a good meal.

Angel Rosen (she/her) is a poet whose writing focuses on mental illness, obsession, women's issues and the unconventional. She can be found writing, reading, starting art projects or drinking lemonade. She is the author of two books, Aurelia and Blake, and has poems recently published by Solstice Lit, Madwoman Collective with more forthcoming from Olney and Spillover Mag, which can be found on angelrosen.com.

Artwork: We are Risen by Robert Frede Kenter

Robert Frede Kenter is a widely published writer, editor & visual artist, Pushcart nominee, a grant recipient (Ontario & Toronto Arts Councils) and EIC/Publisher of Ice Floe Press www.icefloepress.net. Books/anthologies incl. The Book of Penteract (Penteract Press, 2022); EDEN, a Hybrid (2021), avail: www.rareswanpress.com (2021), & Before I Turn into Gold, FeversOftheMind (2021). Recent journals incl: CutbowQ, Streetcake Magazine, Feral, WatchYrHead, Anthropocene, Scissors & Spackle, Cough, BurningHouse, Anti-heroin chic. Robert has lived/worked in Toronto, NYC, San Francisco, London, UK., etc. Living with ME/Fibro, Robert is sometimes sidelined, but never out of the game. Twitter: @frede_kenter, @icefloeP.