Issue #54


Authors

Something the Crows Pick Apart

Content Warnings; Body Horror; allusions to rot/decay 


Crows are prone to collections.

Heaps of shinies and trinkets

most would call garbage.

they swoop for 

cast-aside joys amongst

a sea of nothing. 


when the Something is

half-buried in their domain,

a heap of parts, disjointed

through its revision, 

the Crows begin their descent.


They land,

One

        By

              One.


the Something they 

pick apart,

it barely protests as the soft beaks

sift through wretched metal, yet

breathes, inspecting the birds.


The cookie-cutter pieces

jingle with each inhale, exhale-- the

Something is inviting?-- the 

Crows do not know. 


the Something jangles:

"Take my cookie-cutter bells,

so carefully repurposed 

from my iron frame-- 

used, never loved--

take them, joyous crows,

gossiping carrions,

enamoured by the 

jingling of my loose parts. 

Step right up, one

and all, for my greatest and

final act: the oxidation of my 

Me.

my Corpse rusts for you,

are you not Overjoyed?


Why are you crying, sweet birds?"

Inheritance

Psalm of the Shipwrecked