by Yusra Amjad
quite the life i used to have
quite the beauty i used to be
quite the future i had lying ahead of me
the conviction with which the sun
used to rise and set in my window
was really something, kid
i had a look in my eye, i had a cat on my sill
you should’ve seen the boys that i had in my bed
you should’ve heard the pretty little thoughts in my head
yes i was celebrated
yes my name dripped off the lips
of every mouth that mattered in every
room that floated above the city like a mirage
yes yes i was gracious about it all
that is what they remember about me:
my subtle smile my tilted head
my lowered gaze in the face of profitable praise
oh, of course, my waist was narrow –
oh, of course, lashes were long –
but what they loved best was the way
I made like I didn’t deserve a single bite
of the candyred apple that was passed around every night
but really, kid –
you should’ve seen the kittens i tried to keep alive
their eyes glassy with mortality their mouths full of flies
you should’ve seen it kid
if you did
you might forgive me
Yusra Amjad is a Pushcart-nominated poet and comedian from Lahore, Pakistan. She is also a Fulbright scholar, currently pursuing her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared in Crossed Genres, Cities+Secrets, Where Are You Press, Rising Phoenix Press, The Noble Gas Quarterly and L’Ephemere Review, and The Aleph Review. She was also a finalist for the inaugural Zeenat Haroon Prize.
Marcos Guinoza is a Brazilian graphic designer and digital artist. His collages are inspired by human feelings like loneliness, melancholy, emotional disturbances, disorientation, and confusion in the face of a seemingly meaningless and increasingly absurd world. He has been influenced by minimalism, Russian suprematism, surrealism, and artists like René Magritte and Edward Hopper, among others.