Content Warning: death, violent themes

Elena S. Kotsile – Theoxenia flees Thessaly

my children must die

by poison or blade—

the world needs no more

slaves—i endure each

silent sip, each sleek

slash and heave their weight-

less bodies—blazing

sea, sunrise decent,

no coins on their eyes—

as the guards reach my boat

i jump, crimson waves

swallow my tears—

instead of cold, death

feels like burning

Elena S. Kotsile (pen name) is a writer and a scientific editor based in Berlin, Germany. Her words have appeared in The Bear Creek Gazette, Grim & Gilded, Air & Nothingness press, Rabid Oak, Anti-Heroin Chic, and in Greek journals and anthologies. She writes poetry and speculative fiction in English and Greek and she’s working on her first speculative novel. She cannot escape existentialism and absurdism and tweets whenever she feels like it @Elena_Beate.

Cover Artwork: Dalle Ceneri by Letitia Jiju

Letitia Jiju is an Indian poet who through her work explores the intermingling of mother tongue, religion & generational trauma. Her poems have appeared/are forthcoming in trampset, ANMLY, The Lumiere Review, Moist Poetry Journal and elsewhere. She reads poetry for Psaltery & Lyre. Find her on Instagram/Twitter @eaturlettuce.