silk skirts can be sown with red blood of frayed edges / kitchens can be clean but oranges in ceramic fruit bowls rot / wallpaper melts and stains hands / carpal bones slit closets / I’m waiting for this house to howl / but it only blinks at the dark / no matter how much medicine coats my tongue / living rooms are always boiling over / decorate a for sale sign with dead ladybugs / crack headstone shaped windows open / park coffee in an urn / and shape ruins into a still from an 80s cult classic

Bio: Kelli Lage is a poetry reader for Bracken Magazine and Best of the Net nominated poet. Her debut full-length poetry collection, Early Cuts, is forthcoming summer 2023 with Kelsay Books. Her poetry chapbook, I’m Glad We Did This, is forthcoming fall 2023 with Prolific Pulse Press. Lage’s work has appeared in Stanchion Zine, Maudlin House, The Lumiere Review, Welter Journal, and elsewhere. Website: www.KelliLage.com.