by Carella Keil
To the Yellowjackets Who Stung Me on Panther Creek Trail
I could learn something from you:
little souls
crafted from lost sparks
and a bird’s heart restlessness.
Bodies coiled with the potential
of an unspoken curse
and a dying star.
How did you learn to lay claim
to your lives so indisputably?
How to take up space in this world
and keep it?
Teach me to say no
with my whole body.
Show me how to hold on to anger
until I can leave it,
stinging,
beneath another’s skin.
Jennifer Skogen is the author of The Haunting of Grey Hills young adult series, and her work has been featured in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Green Ink Poetry, Bowery Gothic, and Tales from the Moonlit Path. Jennifer lives near Seattle, Washington, and goes hiking in beautiful places whenever it isn’t raining. She can be found on Twitter at @JenSkogen.
Carella Keil is a writer and digital artist who creates surreal, dreamy images that explore nature, fantasy realms, melancholia and inner dimensions. Her art has been published in a myriad of literary and art magazines, including Chestnut Review, Wander Magazine and Skyie Magazine, and featured on the covers of Glassworks Magazine, Colors: The Magazine, Frost Meadow Review, Nightingale & Sparrow, and forthcoming on the cover of Straylight Magazine. instagram.com/catalogue.of.dreams twitter.com/catalogofdream.