Piece 1:
A woman stands by a mountain at night
prodded and plodded by authoritarian men
she rests her head as a specimen
and in the morning that follows wakes up to be hollowed
Continue reading “Kukkamari Gröndahl”Kukkamari Gröndahl
Lee Blackbird
Ode to my kidneys
Until recently, I didn’t know you were there. I didn’t think about you or worry about you. You were my unsung lifeline.
But now, you are showing signs of exhaustion. I feel you, nestled somewhere beneath my rib cage, one of you on each side, breaking a little bit more each day. I feel you, dying.
Continue reading “Lee Blackbird”Elise Boria
Within Sterile Walls
For so long I could still see the hospital from my dorm room. With its concrete structure perforating the landscape as an incessant reminder. The windows that crawled up its sides like ants, with each one seemingly whispering to me, and I’m repulsed. I can always feel the visceral response welling in my body when I see it, somewhere between comical and infuriating. Now in the mornings its form haunts me, and in the evening when I close the curtains, it still manages to live in the dark and silent room. It swallows tranquility, spitting back up a mocking tar like mass that attaches itself to my skin.
Continue reading “Elise Boria”Saralene Tapley
Saralene Tapley’s Gallery
‘Blue Portrait,’ acrylic on canvas, 26 x 30 inches, 2025
Continue reading “Saralene Tapley”Natalie Forsyth
Uncomfortable, Yet Familiar: An Asylum Experience
I take you to my room on a cold April morning. My head usually feels like the boulder Sisyphus had to push up the hill but that day it was much worse. The littlest sounds felt like I was being waterboarded. Drip, drip, drip. They came to me like drops of water slowly hitting my head. Each one more agonizing than before.
Continue reading “Natalie Forsyth”Alison Dawson
Underwater
Your partner, Megan, greeted me at the airport with a warm hug. We communicated by phone the three weeks you were missing. When we saw each other, there was an instant knowing, a recognition of deep grief that we both carried.
Continue reading “Alison Dawson”Johanna Rothe
The Emperor Has No Clothes! Resist Zionist Reason!
Mad Studies in Palestine Solidarity
Johanna Rothe
It is November 2023. My friend and I are sitting on my couch in my Berlin home. We are discussing a draft of my friend’s upcoming conference presentation. The presentation is about the case of a teacher in Berlin Neukölln hitting a Palestinian student. German media and government framed the incident into a scare about Palestine threatening the peace in German schools. We are finished discussing, in a way, when I advise my friend: “Someone at this conference is going to ask you to condemn Hamas. You should think about how you want to respond.”
Continue reading “Johanna Rothe”Soe Win
Come and See Me at the Intersection: Navigating My Gender Identity, Faith in Christianity, and Mental Health
God, I love you, and I know you love me. You have made me who I am today, and I believe you make no mistakes.
Continue reading “Soe Win”Nancy Jensen
The Room
I am alone in the Room. It has dirty old orange shag carpet on the floor and no furniture except a trash can. The windows are boarded up so you can only see treetops and sky at the top. On the other side of the Room are French doors, also all boarded up. A person standing on the other side of the French doors would not be able to tell that there is a Room beyond those doors. In the Room a light bulb hangs down from a cord, but the control switch to turn the light on or off is not in the Room.
Continue reading “Nancy Jensen”Gayle Bluebird
History of the Consumer/Survivor Movement
Continue reading “Gayle Bluebird”
