Issue #27.3 A Triple Issue: Meghan Albizo, Jade Sham, and Caleb Edmondson
A Poem by Meghan Albizo
Spectacle
I’ve been reading this Frenchman’s ideas from 50 years ago, reality and image image and reality.
I think about this in the shower, putting vegetables into my air fryer.
Wondering while I stare at my lines with 7X magnification: Do I need botox? Is it too late? Will retinol work for me?
I consider myself Smart, not easy to “influence.”
Cool because I don’t have a TikTok, while excusing my other presences.
I am still in the know though.
I know about trends. I know about bubble skirts. I know about the white and grey and cream interiors. I know who is cringe. I know who has rizz. I know that rizz is slang for charisma. I know that slang is to be avoided to not date myself.
But did
I ever
ask why?
________________________________________________________________________________________
Meghan Albizo is a writer of non-fiction memoir, fiction and poetry. She was born in California, studied English and Biology at Missouri State University, explored the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in the United Kingdom with her partner and child. Her work has previously appeared in The Hemlock Journal and she has upcoming publications in Audi Locus and Querencia’s Quarterly Anthology.
________________________________________________________________________________________
A Poem by Jade Sham
December
They’ve turned the radiators on and the first cold of the season has settled into my lungs.
It is easy now for ghosts to slip in.
A professor asked, once, for a metaphor for grief and I said it was a moss grown over everything. Not a lie, but something easier and almost true.
The neighbors have lined their gate with dollar store tinsel and garish red garlands. My throat is thick with phlegm. I live in a place you’ve never been.
The truth is: grief is a light I’ve seen— cold and cruel and burning— and all the world’s a veil I’ve pulled back over my head pretending I’d never seen the truth to begin with.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Jade Sham is a writer originally from Plano, TX, now residing in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has previously been published in Pithead Chapel and Under the Gum Tree, and is forthcoming in Wig-Wag. You can find her on Instagram @/jadesaraa and on Substack at jadesham.substack.com.
________________________________________________________________________________________
A Poem by Caleb Edmondson
________________________________________________________________________________________
Caleb Edmondson is currently completing his MFA studies at Bowling Green State University, where he teaches English and Creative Writing. His words can be found in Bending Genres, Strange Horizons, and Paraselene, among others. A lifelong Ohioan, Caleb enjoys the flatness of cornfields, and the ups and downs of the Cuyahoga Valley—which he considers home.
________________________________________________________________________________________