by Karen Pierce Gonzalez
A Bowl for Lightning
You want the lightning
to think it can escape.
Fashion the base out of
tinted glass – place it
on your palm, hold it
aloft – and having doused
yourself in salt water, let loose
a cry in a minor key;
not too shrill, but slightly sharp,
let the lightning find you
a strange wonder. You will
have pinched the sides of
your vessel – lightning does not
understand curves,
it will undulate in fascination
and frustration – you can cure it
of this with your hand,
stretched above it,
fingers like the conduit it craves,
and it will have invented
its new loop formation. Let its prison
fall and break. Carry it
as vines, now your companion,
your bodyguard, your tool of
constant shock and light.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg (she/they) is a writer and filmmaker. Originally from Toronto, her poetry and short stories have been published in The Windsor Review, Taddle Creek, New Poetry, Carousel, and numerous other magazines. Her short films have screened at festivals around the world, and she is a Contributing Editor at ScreenAnarchy. She lives in Montreal. Find her at shelaghrowanlegg.com and on Bluesky, @bonnequin.bsky.social.
Karen Pierce Gonzalez is an intuitive artist who focuses primarily on elements found in nature. To date, 55+ art works, including collages in City Companions, a hybrid collaboration with poet Marcelle Newbold that recently won Hedgehog Poetry Press’s Little Black Book competition, have appeared in numerous literary journals/magazines. Six pieces have premiered as cover art for publications such as The Chestnut Review and Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art. A 2022 National Arts Program (USA) feature artist, her 3D assemblage pieces have been shown in several Pacific West Coast galleries and museums.