The engorgement of portraits: white man after white man after white man on white horses over a mountain of dead bodies in battle. That was the final straw for me.

One hybrid piece by Alissa Tu.

One comic by Mikoto.

This book made my life, my breaking, my joy something other than a spectacle for the white gaze.

I was a carpenter bee bounty hunter once.

During drought or worse conditions, they can curl up and sleep in suspended animation for decades like tiny interstellar astronauts.

those glass doors that were left unlocked/since people like this can afford to trust

Remember the fire too easily extinguished/along the tongue’s long hallway

How neither of us/were made to debut in the kitchen out of our own/physical hunger, except if you believe grief too has a growl,/has a belly.

In the future, we find our names on/hurricane watch lists.

you’ve got pretty good at swimming, at holding your breath, at having your body hooked and then knifed and then used for its oil.

reminded of studying her bruises in poetry seminars

One hybrid piece by Ava Hofmann.

According to truth or legend, one day a tourist and his wife come to the bar. She has an uneasy stomach, or perhaps she has caught too much sun.

Why should it matter if it was I who believed?

and palms sunrise until it melts like hard candy,

yes I would date myself not only would I date myself

tears melting down the drain let’s play something i can sway to

I’m the one howling at you/tonight.

One comic by Hannah Glaser.