She casts long shadows over me as I rest To love her is torture Alive and desperate, she builds castles from thread White towers, cocoons, endless stairs that lead to nowhere My creator, she bears me everything On this planet only we inhabit She hums as she dances so beautifully She spins spiderwebs in her sleep If she weren’t mine I would let them swallow her whole The delirium of power makes her fragile and angry One wrong twist in her plié and the facade will crack She vomits nonsense...

Art by Jasmine Nguyen Agatha Pennington wiped a layer of sugared violet frosting from her pink trimmed apron in a secluded corner of the kitchen. The cake shop must be in tip-top shape for the arrival of the Volunteer. Constance Pennington, the frontman of the sisters’ business, poked her head of frizzy grey and black hair into the kitchen. She donned the same frilly apron, this one trimmed with blue. There was a speck of a red stain on her shoulder, but there was no time to change. “Aggie,...

Art by Liz Nedelescu “It’s a sunny day in Houston, Texas! The temperature is 96 degrees fahrenheit and the humidity is at-at-at-“ The crank radio fizzled out on Patty Rink’s backstage vanity. Her mother, Sarah, banged against the side with her slender fist. “Oh not again, we’ve gotta get your father to fix the damn radio, Pat. How else are we gonna listen to the pre-pageant broadcast?” Patty touched a freshly pink-painted hand to her updo, feeling the crunch of her blonde curls and the clink...