Loss by Shani Barnard

[tabby title="Poem"] This year carries loss like a satchel of shadows.It lets itself in—I hear its keys rattle in my bones,its shoes wet with graveyard grass.I long to be angry, yet I am strangely understanding.Why do you wear the coats...

The Wildflower Vow by Shani Barnard

[tabby title="Poem"] He said he loved me,and I wore those words like a necklace—tight enough to bruise,too pretty to take off.I was the cathedral.He lit one candle and left,while I burned down to the ground—like a string unravelledfrom the hem...

Crescendo by Shani Barnard

[tabby title="Poem"] There are daysmy chest burnswith a thousand unnamed feelings,and I swear,if I don’t find a place to put them,I’ll split openfrom the inside. I romanticize everything—the way light moves through a curtain,the way someone laughswithout knowing I’m listening—and...