Featured in the 2016 Spring Issue of Rambunctious
unwanted gifts Shiloh Joyner, 16 my mother gave me form gave me breath gave me sight gave me beauty and song and the terrible gift of feeling. gave me this world in which i have no place. gave me all these gifts that can only harm me can only suffocate can only wither in my grasp can only turn my heart shriveled, starved, chalky. thrust me into a place i have no business walking in wrapped around me this skin sewed me up inside of it left me in the dark insides. now i dream of crows and wolves ripping me apart teeth and beak tearing flesh smiling, laughing, polite conversation turning nasty myself, holding my innards close to me stomach ripped open seeing myself through the eyes of the beasts in my fever dreams i become the crow and the wolf tearing through my own skin, down to muscle cracking bones until nothing of me remains when i wake will you throw what's left of me into the waves