Try compost – scraps
piled into a heap. The forgotten things
are begging for another life. Let’s say you could
get the dirt to sing. You could plant
hope, water it, wait for it to sprout
wings that won’t burn in the sun.
Let’s say this time, you won’t think about how
long hope takes. Your children aren’t yet bored
with magic. There’s still time
to pull carrots from the black mouth of the earth,
time to shriek with awe. You could teach them
to plant sunflowers. Imagine nights
spent in the garden, learning how to bend
your faces back to the east, rehearsing
the return of the sun.
AMANDA ROTH (she/her) is a poet whose work explores motherhood, embodiment, the climate crisis, and revisionist folklore. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection, A Mother’s Hunger (2021). She lives in Central Texas with her husband, two sons, and a growing collection of houseplants.
HEATHER HUA, born in 1996, is a multidimensional artist in illustration, comics, and animation. Born in Zhejiang, China, and higher educated in the US, Hua is fluent in Chinese, English, and Japanese. She graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology in 2021 with an MFA in illustration and holds a BA in Economics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, she is based in Los Angeles and works as a freelance illustrator.
