by Athoula Lelekidis
The Women Before Me
The women before me had visions too
that they did not live long enough to see.
A change invisible to the eye
of yesterday– defined hysterical,
ungrateful pipedreams of a sacred room
to call their own, a granted space to find
identity, if only privately.
The women before me had visions too
that they did not live long enough to see.
A choice to claim to keep their bodies well
beyond just that of black or herbal tea.
To cast a vote to last a longer stretch
than ones they spoke in proper company.
The women before me had visions too
that they did not live long enough to see.
Of digging for gold in their own heartbeat,
instead of in the names of men,
or in the dark pockets of their fathers.
Dreaming of the day their mind could alchemize
a thought into a glass of wine enjoyed beside
a fire with friends and family, all their own.
Izzie Zuniga is a Brooklyn-based poet originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is currently working towards her MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry at Columbia University. She regularly performs spoken word poetry in New York and feels most inspired by duality, especially in the simplicity and complexity of relationships. She is thrilled to make her publication debut with Feral in their June 2025 Revolution Issue, while at her first writing residency at Chateau d’Orquevaux in eastern France. Instagram: @formfollowsfunction.iz
Anthoula Lelekidis is a first-generation Greek-American lens-based artist who utilizes photography, printmaking, and image transfer in her practice. Her work navigates themes of personal memory, migration, and identity. With a deep interest in the archive, Lelekidis manipulates found family photographs to delve into the complexities of her ancestry, reimagining the blank spaces and uncovering lost connections to her past. Lelekidis holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Parsons School of Design and was awarded a Community Fellowship from the International Center of Photography. She was an artist-in-residence at the Skopelos Foundation of the Arts in Greece and earned a scholarship from the Students On Ice Organization to travel to photograph Antarctica. More recently, she was the recipient of the Manhattan Graphics Center’s printmaking scholarship in 2022 and NYFA’s Queens Art Fund: New Work Grant in 2023. She is a faculty member at the International Center of Photography and is based in Queens, New York.
https://www.instagram.com/anthoulalelekidis/ https://www.anthoulalelekidis.com/