ISSUE III

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SIENNA SOLSTICE
ISSUE III 11
A Classmate Uses a Word I’ve Never Heard as a Poem Title
Darnell “DeeSoul” Carson
Ophiocordyceps
Noun.
A genus of fungi containing about 140 species that grow on insects.
Ex:
ophiocordyceps unilateralis is known for its parasitic
relationship with ants, altering the host’s behaviors in order
to ensure its own propagation. Host widens mandibles to root
itself to the underside of a leaf. Host will stay there until
its inevitable death. I am unsure if it is even conscious of the choice,
or what it will soon bring. All that is left, days later, is a shell of what
was once was an ant, still attached to the leaf’s vein, and ophiocordyceps,
bursting
OR
the summer after my freshman year, a boy hijacks my prefrontal cortex
and I no longer make sense to myself. Every neuron rewires
to ensure the survival of our relationship. Soon, my body
reroutes to every place I think conditions are suitable enough
to sustain what isn’t there: Two hours beside the closest lake
Google maps could lead us to. A midnight-lit playground
the eve of his departure. I do not know how he hurt me
until five months after it has ended.
OR
It is a summer and a half later. On social media, I can see he has attached himself
to another. Every day, I try to save myself from the shell I’ve become by learning
to undo the damage. Most days, it works, always a lesson in forgiveness,
or mercy, though I’m not sure which one of us it is for. But some days,
I can see myself, still rooted where the boy left me, and all of the hollowness,
bursting
sweetdreams
Mixed Media on Hot Press Watercolor Paper
Christian Leon Guerrero