Dry by Tejal Doshi

They lay stillborn,

devoid of heat and heart.

She pressed her ear, shuddering,

to their chests. Buried her babies herself

tugging weeds, swaying beneath the sky’s dead heath.

Blinked. Begged charred clouds to tear apart into shards of water.

She tasted the earth, lay curled with her girls. Hands tightened into fists,

like a baby clinging to its home body. Girls, he’d growled, girls

burden. She’d whispered: Why? What sin did my babies

commit to earn a death sentence? She thrust her

fingers into her mouth, yanked the words

snagging her teeth, choked on

her cries, flung them to

the grave.

They lay

stillborn,

devoid of heat and heart.

About the Writer...

Tejal Doshi is a high school student of Lotus Valley International School from India whose work appears in Blue Marble Review, Sandpiper Magazine, The WEIGHT Journal, The Start Literary Magazine, Cathartic Youth Lit, and elsewhere. Find out more about her at https://tejaldoshi.carrd.co/

About the Artist...

Shanwill Wang is a junior at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. At DASOTA, Shanwill is a visual arts major. The medium of their piece is paint.