#raqiya

Happiness by Shuzo Oshimi

Raqiya by Boichi and Masao Yajima

Children of the Sea by Daisuke Igarashi

Levius by Haruhisa Nakata

Kengan Omega by Daromeon and Yabako Sandrovich

Shamo by Izo Hashimoto and Akio Tanaka

Questions come & go like bees in their hive. We’re afraid to ask where, so we lick

the pollen from their thoraxes instead, try to discern their direction by taste alone when we should be

dancing. We study the world as moths do, from a distance, until a flame appears & draws us

closer, then closer, to self- immolation. I expect to be burned over & over again, pursuing truth—

a vanity afforded to me by virtue of speaking it. Imperfect as it is, we try & try to tell each other

secrets while no one watches, compound eyes glued to their screens. The knowledge

we inherit from the air comes to us in stages: larval, pupal, then molting forever until the juvenile wings have fallen

off, replaced by the ptero- stigma of adulthood. Some of us skip idly toward exoskeletons

of suits & ties. Some of us never evolve beyond the nymph stage— their mandibles suspended in permanent

O’s. (They crave so much & they can’t even chew paper.) It hurts to grow, learning the mechanism

of a new body. I know the ache of that wonder, the sting jutting through the abdomen.

When the raqiya finally collapses, I’ll use the scraps to build a new nest, where I can be queen (or king),

& we can propagate our own species of mystery: hybrid swarms born to be sentient & buzzing.

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Metamorphosis as an Answer

Tory Adkisson

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