face me Oxymandias / open your stone eyes / this world has changed
Tag: Issue 5
Galaxyfire
Pale hands beckon like open flame / foxfire on your lips / leads me deeper into your swamp / like folk tales of buried treasure / that I want to make true.
The Story of Cyclops
1. cutting a pear / 2. the storm petrel does not land until it dies
Black Summer
On the longest day of the year / we wait for nightfall, slouching on / your grandmother’s porch, pack / of cigarettes balanced on the arm / of your plastic lawn chair.
Manifest Destiny
I am the place where / hooves join dirt / where fur and flesh / meet and cut apart
You Are Here
in velvet grasp of eternal night / a building wrapped in strips of glass, light / slicing bravely through starless dark / so utterly alone, fragile before shadows.
I’m so glad / you killed her— / my doe-eyed sister / who could not read or dance or carry a worthwhile conversation, / who had no might despite her name / but powered a thousand ships with her blood.
Secrets / / Reflections
I never understood the feeling in my stomach / When witches and monsters came / On the TV. For years I thought / They made me afraid
where is the fish

The Antidote
Arsenika would like to thank the following people for their support on Patreon. You make this magazine possible! ArsenikaAlexandra Erin NitrogenaDave, Katharine Mills, Erin Hartshorn, Nila Fhiosagam