leeks,bulbs lit of pencils,of expulsion,space between shared space

;commonality,cataract a similar sounding moan,cascade from 

precipice|picked up a hair tie on a hiking trail the other day,burst

thereafter,then morning;trillium & sumac–we

’re less animal than we expect,tapetum lucidum,mammalia of the mirror|

amatoxin in amanita verna;aversion of blood type O to all else:lover stay

back,i don’t know u,ur face a palindrome presbyopic

to the touch,no,no touching,rite,spore print wed across–

or what we call distance–proximity as an unkissed 

cousin[wolf=rhetorically appropriate/wolves=question

mark,purgatory like a flyleaf between chests,it’s 

fucked]this,the closeness,what we were

hoping to avoid here,chandelier of deforested sanctuary,the

only words left for holy:what we can’t scream,but will,when

we can’t hunt w/o the night,so we just have to 

make our own

---

Liam Strong (they/them) is a queer neurodivergent cottagecore straight edge punk writer who has earned their BA in writing from University of Wisconsin-Superior. They are the author of the chapbook everyone’s left the hometown show (Bottlecap Press, 2023). You can find their poetry and essays in Impossible Archetype and Emerald City, among several others. They are most likely gardening and listening to Bitter Truth somewhere in Northern Michigan.

Liam’s previous pieces: nightmares of my father dying (Issue 48), pareidolia in the form of a lamprey (Issue 74), and love every queer because we’re demons: love every queer because we’re gods (Issue 81)