by Max Cavitch
isolation orange
sunlight sacs never stay intact
so the juice drips down the wrist
and settles stinging into tattoo ink
skin rips, pith sticks beneath the nails
gone purple-pink from lifetime lack
of oxygen, peeling yellow at the tips
pulp catches between gnashing teeth
hunched monkeylike at the radiator
thumbing carpels to the cheek
the pic pic pic of a white ball chain
which opens and closes the eyelids
a gaze and a wave whiz past each other
a fly flits dizzily, tracing a triangle
like he’s trying to square the hypotenuse
drawn by a bursted follicle
perhaps letting the rind drop a dog
would mouth it like a shredded tennis ball
and the sticky sill become a sanctuary
Carly Taylor is a writer and amateur naturalist based in Prescott, AZ. A recent graduate from Stanford University with a B.A. in Comparative Literature, she now works as Communication Coordinator for the Natural History Institute. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys climbing rocks, hunting mushrooms, poking cacti, and watching bees. You can read her nature writing on Substack at Keeping an Eye on Things and her book reviews on Instagram @unsolicitedbookpics.
Max Cavitch is a photographer, writer, and teacher living in Philadelphia. His photographs have appeared in publications including Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art, The Journal of Wild Culture, phoebe, and Politics/Letters and have been exhibited most recently at the Blank Wall Gallery (Athens), the Chania International Photo Festival (Crete), Art Room Gallery, and the Biennale di Senigallia, Senigallia (Italy). For several years, he has been a contributing photographer for the public-science project, iNaturalist. A number of his photographs will also appear in his new book, Ashes: A History of Thought and Substance, forthcoming from Punctum Books in 2025.