Propped up pink and raw

By Ava Ugolini

Multi-faceted, I lost my skin in the inferno.
Still taking the bus and I’m
propped up, pink and raw.
 
Too-faceted, there are expressions I cannot show you.
Propped up, pink and raw,
that saltwater still burns even with my wetsuit on.
 
Facet-less, at the stake I am free.
Propped up, pink and raw,
authenticity comes easy.
 
One-faceted, I’m in the corner of your eye— 
look beyond smoke walls. I’ll wait,
propped up, pink and raw.

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Dick Hell

By Ava Ugolini

The heartworms wove our flesh together,
creating an ever-moving, goo-filled weave— 
like one that makes a blanket complete.
No one’s done the border yet,
and the worms hang off on all sides,
begging to stay attached.
We’re chained now for good,
but on all sides our pattern becomes disoriented and loose and
somehow still alive. 

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​Ava Ugolini (she/her) is from small-town Southern Ontario, although she currently resides on the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples as she completes an English Honours BA at the University of Victoria. She serves as Deputy Editor for the English undergraduate journal The Albatross, in which her essay “‘Life During Wartime’: How New Wave Music Echoed William Blake” is forthcoming.