collector of fake flowers

Naomi Native depicted as Oshun, Yoruba goddess of love, beauty, and fertility

My son’s taken to running. He splashes in a creek. He looks just like his father, but he’s taken after me.

Familiar tension on your face. I know your little heart will break if you’re left locked inside a cage. You’ve gotta get out all that rage.

(I wish I gave you something better. But I don’t have much to give.)

Summoned you from above.

I put you in my blood.

Swallowed you up.

You will be loved, if it kills me.”

janet fitch, white oleander / things or things with alexandra jacob - viscera collection, 2016 / brynne rebele-henry, “self-biography as a false saint” / ashley blanton - dendrite, 2013 / safiya sinclair, “notes on the state of virginia ii” / harry paul ally - figures collection, 21st c. / nicole homer, “underbelly” / ana teresa barboza - modos de vestir series, 2009 / carmen maria machado, “the lost performance of the heigh priestess of the temple of horror” / carrie (1976) / anne carson, plainwater: essays and poetry