Poem of the Issue: Strange Serenity

Sweet sweat streaks sticky slopes

Sliding slowly south

I stingily savor the sour smell

of a swarming storm

Swimming into the sea’s sphere

Soon you’ll sit on the stone stump

Staggering swiftly in stuttering steps

So sorry

Savage scandals stole

my swollen soul

Sorry to sugarcoat

I sacrifice my satisfaction for safety—

Though scared of sacred sadness

You save me, singing

Songs of shushed simplicity

like soft seas upon my scalp,

Soothing while still searing,

In search of a secret.

Seeing scalding solutions for a setback

Sensitive shadows shall shave our shame

Skimming sounds of screams from our skulls

Silence the shot.

Slipping into sudden sleep

Skin shines sudden silver through the smoke

Smoothly slithering into snakes.

Something solar, somewhere in soil,

We stamp our sorrow into soiled space

Amelia Deng & Fiona Fittante