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I'm Refolding

by Gustave Rish


With eyes of the same wetness as a fawn, a soft doe-shaped stag, 

I sprout antlers that grow towards the sun,  

reaching upward like the first Mirabal 

from the start, “I just wanted to help someone”. 

 

If I rose, from the early sunset I was born during 

like the moon, I cycled through, waxed and waned, 

and new selves emerge, new cicada shells  

so bountiful they fold over like rose petals; 

 

I’ll see the sun through gaps in the yellow butterflies that follow me,  

their wingbeats choke me, overflowing, each one another petal 

 moving back and forth, rocking me to sleep in Charon’s boat, 

 unfolding around me in a pit of so many sunflowers; 

 

the last time I’ll feel it, your felt chokes me, overflowing with  

the scent of lavender perfume, smoke that follows me, cleanses me,  

a sticky honey syrup of you, that under the light of the moon purifies, 

into vanilla that envelops me, soft lilac wings that lull me into a forever dream.     



 

About the Writer...

Gustave Rish is a Junior at The Willow School in New Orleans. He loves animals, alternative drag, gardening, and cosmic horror. There is a murder of crows that he feeds at his house that follows him around the city. They are a major source of inspiration for his poetry. He is currently trying to gain favor with the ones outside of his school.


About the Artist...

Kierra Reese is a 17-year-old multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, where she is currently a visual arts major at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. Kierra is a 2024 YoungArts Winner with Distinction in Visual Arts, and a 2023 scholastics national medalist where she currently holds a cumulative of 14 gold keys and is an American Visions nominee at the regional level. She also attended the Maryland Institute College of Arts Pre-College. Kierra is particularly interested in how prejudice in contemporary culture distorts human identity. She hopes to utilize her chronicle works to inspire viewers to reevaluate and think critically about their own experiences and preconceptions. Art becomes a means for Kierra to dissect not only her sentience, but the philosophy of what it means to be an individual.

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