MAD & MOONLY: WINTER 2019
JENNY LIU, LARA KATZ & JENNIFER JANTZEN
JENNY LIU
MY MOTHER’S CHINA COLLECTION
alternatively Teacups
I tongue-tie my culture
into knots of lost language
and fake double eyelids. I peer
through my cracked glasses, & I
stare into my blue and white teacup, trying
to speak to those flower petals. I tell them:
my last name sounds like your last name. But
to them, I look like shattered ceramic,
pieced together with a taste of unfamiliarity. And
to me, those flowers grow in the distant horizon,
rooted in a world I wish I was part of.
LARA KATZ
SMALL WOUNDS
they are
small wounds
gold blood
can drip in
thick rivers
they can be
pretty
mother-of-pearl bile
can suspend in
wide cobwebs
they are
small wounds
and i like to
stare
inspired by gold flying asparas by nancy lorenz
AND SHE REBELLED
It had been three weeks since
she had seen the sun, so
she plucked away the claws
of the old bear skin rug.
She plucked away the claws
until her own hands were claws,
bleeding in the darkness.
Her name would need more time to be forgotten.
Her own hands were claws and they bled
as she fashioned claws into
smooth pieces, her fingers
whetting.
She tore strips of leather from her own clothes,
until she was alone with just her flesh,
and tied the smooth sharp pieces onto the leather,
fashioning a necklace. She was careful to leave
the undersides barbed.
She did not make the necklace a full circle
for she knew
his neck was large,
and she wished for the ends of her work to be
sharp.
When the three weeks had passed,
and she had emerged,
she presented her creation on hands and knees.
When the three weeks had passed,
and she had emerged,
he took the gift and put it round his neck.
He took her on as his favorite wife,
and she took him on as her only husband.
Each night she took her handiwork off his broad neck,
and each night she traced a finger through the blood.
JENNIFER JANTZEN
OLD TALES
For Reina, for always
You know a witch once loved me, the old woman says. The fire gives off an occasional crack;
you’re thinking of Juniper berries. She looks at her hands. I held her whole body in a box: her
ribboned veins, her envelope skin, her rose hip teeth. The night falls softly down. She told me
once that Love is not only for lovers. The powdery scent of witchcraft fills the house: sweet,
tinged with what you’re thinking of. There is a child sleeping on the floor. I’ve loved a lot of
people, the woman says. She sees supermarket aisles, bones tied to pine trees, fingers striking
matches. I’ve loved a lot. The child stirs like cauldron soup, in a dream and yet somehow still
present.
Jenny Liu is a high school student from New York who was previously recognized by the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her poetry is forthcoming or has appeared in the Watershed Review, The Manhattanville Review, Thin Air Magazine, and elsewhere. Outside of writing, she enjoys listening to music, graphic designing, and participating in her school's Science Research program.
Lara Katz has been published in Polyphony Lit, Teen Ink, and the Bookends Review. Lara is a high school student attending the Pierrepont School.
Jennifer Jantzen is a student from Concord, MA. She lives with two dogs and possesses a very large sock collection.