So I randomly got into entering magazine submissions on Instagram! They're fun, and very artsy-aesthetic, and I enjoy getting to read other people's works. I've yet to sit down and seriously write something (like short fiction) for a magazine, but I wrote this anthology of poems based off the theme "menagerie". (I had to resist the urge to write about the Grishaverse.) This is for a magazine on Instagram called The Eyre!
Anyway I'm pretty sure the submissions were supposed to be about cute animals but mine got depressing real fast. I'll put commentary at the end to explain what I was thinking of/intending when I wrote each poem, hopefully that's interesting and not just me dragging it LMAO.
As a lil trigger warning, there are a few violent themes, a poem about abortion, and overall captivity of spirit and animal. Also colonization. To be clear, I don't blame all of current Europe for racism. That's unfair and detrimental. But there is something to be said for acknowledging the wrongs Europe did in the PAST. Key word being past.
Anyway, on to the poetry! I hope you find a little something of yourself in one of these <3
MENAGERIE
Is nature wild? Untamable? Heretic? Is nature dangerous?
Or did man just look at nature, and suddenly deem it traitorous?
Is the wild animal to blame for the way that she craves flesh?
Or are humans at fault, because when animals see life, we can see only death?
i. WOLF
Pelt of stars was trimmed,
it's too hot where he lives now
Yellow eyes are dimmed,
with city lights, his limbs wear down
Teeth shaved and filed, they're cosmetic
Claws pulled from their sheaths
The wild wolf, reduced to aesthetic
A wild rose, reduced to weeds
[ this one was just a thematic starter: animals caged, changed, and abused to fit into what humans deem safe. it's supposed to set the tone, and establish the themes of the poems ahead. ]
ii. LION
That beautiful mane was gorgeous
Out in the plains, under sun
It took up space, something ferocious
Wild, loose, undone
They've bound your hair,
tied up your curls,
with societal expectation
The lion's lair
Is just dead girls,
O, European extermination
[ while cliche (as I am aware), the lion was meant to represent the experience of Black people and their hair. please let me know if that's offensive, since i'm not Black! in a whole, messy, multi-layered metaphorical way, i think there's something interesting about using cliches. i did it with the poem below, Dragon, which i'll explain later. but like, stereotypes and cliches exist because at one point, they were true and they were real. it's the soulless, careless repetition of such stereotypes and cliches that turns them into mockeries and hurtful weapons. hence why i used the lion. ]
iii. DRAGON
Nobody knows what a dragon really looks like
They picture scales, wings, fire
