Special Featurerbdkatixa espinoza, special feature, poetry

katixa espinoza: Confuse Thumbs for Cocks

Special Featurerbdkatixa espinoza, special feature, poetry
katixa espinoza: Confuse Thumbs for Cocks
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prime oral fixation / used to bite cuticles until they bled

psycho                                                  analyze   self

 

to miss sucking / to feel childlike

naptime with a thumb in    mouth / to feel comforted by mother when she was away

crave love and safety more than milk

 

now  confuse thumbs for cocks / crave comfort in the body attached to it

find

comfort in other bodies / a home in one

where     mother’s lamb chops are served for dinner

 

you called    lamb chop

an excuse to

take pleasure in inflicting pain / chop    up / devour  

until there is

no body

left.

 

all that would be left are abandoned thumbs /  to remind   to keep sucking

a relic from trauma / oral to phallic obsessions /  use      teeth     

chew on thumbs rather suck / inflict the pain ridden in    body   

thumbs remind me of your body  /  i chew on them until they bleed

a defense mechanism  

 

i    hope    it   hurt

katixa espinoza is a 20 yr old miami native, latinx writer residing in brooklyn, new york. she fulfills her art student quota by drinking one mocha coffee a day and likes to yell at people who don’t recognize their privilege. her works can be found on Sea Foam Mag, Textploit, and other places as well. she yells into the void at katixaespinoza.com

Special FeaturerbdGretchen Gales, special feature, poetry

Gretchen Gales: Rural County Sex Ed

Gretchen Gales is managing editor and a staff writer for Quail Bell Magazine. Her work has also appeared in The Establishment, projects of the SFG Media, Bustle, Yellow Chair Review, and more. When she isn't writing, she panics about how she has so much to write. Follow her work and latest updates at www.writinggales.wordpress.com. 

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Christine Stoddard: Mortem et Virginiana

Born and raised in Arlington, Virginia, Christine Stoddard is a Salvadoran-Scottish-American writer, editor, and artist now based in New York. Her work has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Bustle, Native Peoples Magazine, The Feminist Wire, the New York Transit Museum, the Condé Nast Building, The Huffington Post, and beyond. In 2012, the Puffin Foundation honored her with a national emerging artist grant in photography. That same year, she debuted her documentary film, The Persistence of Poe, at the Poe Museum and on PBS-Richmond/Charlottesville. In 2014, Folio Magazine named Christine one of the media industry's top 20 people in their 20s for founding Quail Bell Magazine. Her book, Images of America: Richmond Cemeteries, which she co-authored with Misty Thomas. also came out that year. This year, The History Press published her book, Hispanic and Latino Heritage in Virginia. 
 

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Catherine Esposito Prescott is the author of the chapbooks Maria Sings (forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press) and The Living Ruin (Finishing Line Press).  Recent poems have appeared in Pleiades, Southern Poetry Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Poetry East, MiPOesias, and elsewhere.  A graduate of NYU’s MFA program in Creative Writing-Poetry, Catherine is cofounder and curator of the SWWIM reading series.  She lives in Miami Beach with her husband, two sons, and daughter.

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Ashley Mares is the author of Maddening Creatures (Aldrich Press, forthcoming), The Deer Longs for Streams of Water (Flutter Press) A Dark, Breathing Heart (dancing girl press), and Killer (Ghost City Press, forthcoming). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Stirring, Whiskey Island, Sugar House Review, Glass Poetry Press, Prelude, PANK, and others. She is currently completing her J.D. in Monterey, Ca, where she lives with her husband. Read more of her poetry at ashleymarespoetry.wordpress.com and follow her @ash_mares2. 

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