Medulla Oblongata

                                     ⁓ you wake to
greyed edges tearing flesh
of fire-breath parchment
flared smoke cascading
mindless fugue filaments
trapped in frontal lobe
heart chambers curtained                     corset-tight
like the bodice your mother wore
the day she beat you                                       belt-buckle blue
welts etched in butterfly skin
pain needled in flame trails
under mottled inner-thigh
the color of your name                       tattooed
between the waking
and the living                          dreamscapenightmares
pulling you back
into blackness
where screams boil
the roof of your mouth
feather-tarred lies
bubbling like sulphur pools
pitted in your stomach
in this place can you taste                              the candy glass of grief
                                                strung from absence

Self-portrait part #2

i am a fishbowl

by starborn battle-lust

Audra Burwell earned her BA in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno. She is currently pursuing an MFA degree in Creative Writing with a specialization in poetry. Her work has been published by New Note Poetry, Palaver Journal, Flora Fiction, Deep Overstock, Dream Noir, and many others, as well as appearing on the Do Fiction Podcast. Audra is a member of Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society. She has headed literary workshops at the Young Writers Conference and served on the editorial board of Spectrum. Her poems “Residing in Your Veins” and “Concealed Oasis” were selected as finalists for Fresno State’s Art Song Festival. Audra’s poem “Shunned Oasis” was published and featured on Our California: Poems from Fresno County, a literary advocacy project established by California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick, in partnership with the California Arts Council.