THE WINGED MOON
DISCOVERY OF HER BODY
Taylor Franson-Thiel
“One approach, associated chiefly with learning
and cognitive development stresses the childhood
socialization process by which...people are taught...
gender,” -Ruth A. Wallace (Feminism and Sociological Theory, 1989).
“With a dinosaur’s more than limited
mental capacity, could it have
participated in a structured herd?”
-Jerry Macdonald (Earth’s First Steps, 1994).
When scientists find dusty rose colored fossilized bones,
74 million years from when my body was wrapped in white garments,
buried in 20-gauge steel, they’ll make observations about my skeleton
like she and I were not the same.
They’ll study my eye sockets (normal?), never knowing what I stared at—
my brain cavity (average), never knowing my passions—
the length of my femurs (uniquely long for her species!)
never knowing who I would have chosen to run to.
They’ll determine my likely intelligence levels, if my womb
ever held life, and, importantly, how breakable my bones are.
Because these are the things that matter when studying the female.
Was she smart, was she fertile, did she participate in the structure of her herd
properly? Once, I read a book about how paleontologists extract
bones from the earth. “You might think a fossil bone would be tough
- well they are, but tough and brittle.” How fragile they will think me,
never knowing what I withstood.
IN SOME LIFE OR THE OTHER
Vikki C
The artist uses white as a means of suspense,
above or below expectations.
The instrument is bent, a sickle to slowly
cleave myself out of the picture.
Its other end, held by a lover’s fingers.
The cream boudoir facing away from sorrow’s door.
It’s you, rolling in ivory sheets—
never thirsting colour other than amber
at the tip of a slow burning line destined to kill us.
Life’s colourless drag held too long between wet lips.
This place on Earth we refuse to extinguish.
A field of light in planetary pause,
smoke obscuring in a biblical sense.
White as in blinding, broken only by your closeness,
the morning thrown over your perfect form
like cool ocean foam. Here, I am leven.
My hand fits yours like a lullaby—
small and clenched, as if to fight.
Or to guard this miracle between us
naked to itself—already escaping.
ART FROM THE NEO CAMBRIAN SERIES by LAURIE KAPLOWITZ
Laurie Kaplowitz uses the human image to explore nature and existence. Her work has been exhibited in commercial galleries in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco, as well as museums such as the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Fogg cArt Museum, the New Bedford Art Museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and the Currier Gallery of Art. Her work is collected by private individuals and corporations. lauriekaplowitz.net
Taylor Franson-Thiel is a Pushcart-nominated poet from Utah, now based in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Master’s in creative writing from Utah State University and is pursuing an MFA at George Mason University. She enjoys lifting heavy weights and posting reviews to Goodreads like someone is actually reading them.
Vikki C. is a London-born, award-nominated writer and author of The Art of Glass Houses (Alien Buddha Press, 2022) and Where Sands Run Finest (DarkWinter Press, 2024). Her recent work appears in EcoTheo Review, One ART Poetry, One Hand Clapping, Black Bough Poetry, The Belfast Review, Acropolis Journal, Ice Floe Press, DarkWinter Lit, Mythic Picnic, Nightingale and Sparrow and elsewhere.