by Roselle Farr
Self-Portrait as Cyra Noavek
“I didn’t want to take root in this place,” Veronica Roth in Carve the Mark.
In the dark, I do not know to stall.
My fingers have been nothing but flatlines,
I say in my little toddler voice to my mother.
My mother has two mouths, still
she does not answer. I search for another one in
all the galaxies. The planets try to get me to
stay. I’ve never seen dancers like those before,
I say, pointing to the hushflowers.
I return home a ghost in the almost dark. My love
knows no study but of my palms— each hash
on my arm blinks around him. He assures me that
he is not a mirror, holds me most nights,
when I cannot sleep. Numbs my eyes with
his hands. We exchange brothers, sisters
like injuries. Like the war, we are
too tired for blame.
Dhwanee Goyal (she/her) is a sixteen-year-old student from Maharashtra, India. An editor-in-chief of Indigo Literary Journal, her work appears or is forthcoming in Variant Literature, Heavy Feather Review, The Shore Poetry, and more. Her Twitter handle is @pparallell, and her micro-chapbook, Kasauli Daydreams, is out from Ghost City Press. She is an Adroit 2021 mentee, and an alumna of Iowa Young Writers’ Studio.
Roselle Farr is a full time Business Analyst, in her spare time she is an amateur photographer, but has also started to explore the world of abstract painting. She loves being creative and a selection of her photos can be found at her Instagram page – rosellemarie_photos.