EMERGING ARTISTS AND WRITERS: MARGARET SCHNABEL & ERIN O'MALLEY
MARGARET SCHNABEL
SUNDAY BEST
eating plums, ciruelas,
with your hands
and the stain is the soft kind
that’ll wash off in the morning
and the ceiling fans
and the hurt between your ribs
and the tired-eye smiles
huesos of foreign fish
between your teeth
a warm, acrid haze
in the kitchen, your mamá
haciendo cigarrillos,
the sickly yellow flickering
on the outskirts of town, the
cracked horizon;
los jóvenes out too late
driving too fast spilling their
young blood screaming screaming
tucked in and cleaned up
the next morning for misa
(add a little vinegar and that blood
comes out of white lace fast and easy)
and after swallowing the ocean
and the sun and the deep
pulsing blue of that sky
how will you ever drink it all in?
mi niña,
mi niña,
debes comer más.
ERIN O'MALLEY
EXODUS STRATEGY
I’ll dump my heart out
into the snow deer-slashed, crushed
velvet viscera highway
to hell lights draining, sundowning last
supper seconds.
I’ll drive singing the blues
of swallowed skies, digesting
one lasting meal: a stack of ribs
(lamb, not pork) and root beer,
lick the slaughter of reverse snow
angels frisking unwounded doorposts.
Margaret Schnabel is a sixteen-year-old musician, writer and artist who wants to grow up to be a surgeon (and a poet). Her work has previously been published in the Rising Phoenix Review and Zig Zag Zine. She hangs out at www.starrymar.tumblr.com.
Erin O' Malley (Erin Jin Mei) is a 17-year-old writer from York, PA. Her work has been recognized by Hollins University, Columbia College Chicago, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and others. She will study abroad in Germany as a Speedwell Scholar this fall. You can find her at www.explorationsoferin.com.