Content Warning: self-harm, suicidal ideation

KM Bezner – Michael must be a Libra, which makes us fundamentally incompatible

the gun is too heavy

so i carve a hundred

scarlet feathers into

my legs until they add

up to something i can

swallow

i weigh my dark heart

against each one and

as it passes my lips to

settle in my guts i sink

lower on that proverbial

scale

and i have learned that

this is the price to stay

grounded

KM Bezner (she/they) is a queer librarian in Rhode Island. Their work has been published by or is forthcoming from HASH Journal, Hot Pot Magazine, Ouch! Collective, Barzakh, coalitionworks, and others. If she's not writing poetry, she's probably reading comics, making zines, or playing Dungeons & Dragons. They can be found most places @kmbezner.

Artwork: Leaning Blue Palms by Wendy Hess

Wendy Hess is from Berkeley California, USA. As an Artist, Photographer and Author, she enjoys the Gothic, Classic, Humorous, Magic, and Bizarre side of Life. Her work has been featured in Cauldron Anthology, Seaborne, Floresta, Acropolis Journal, Lavender Bones, Nymph Magazine, and Disability In Fairytales And Folklore.