Broken House

Poetry by Jessica Rowshandel & Ripley Hush

the ocean became a soup of toxins

the forest a fable

like the tortoise that took its time

we stalled to savor the fire

and smiled on —sun rising in a birdless sky—

even as our mouths fell to the ground as bricks

a broken house for broken souls seeking the needle-prick

chemical solace our only rocket ship

now we dodge whales sick with the inky black

prehistoric death leaking from the planet’s core

as half-lives span eons at the dump

and phthalates rest like pharaohs

in a coffin within a coffin within a coffin

Ripley Hush is an artist and poet currently working in the second circle of hell, Berlin. Find her on Insta & Twitter @ripleyhush.  

Jessica Rowshandel (they/them) is a nonbinary Afro-Taíno Puerto Rican + Persian writer, visual artist, and musician living in Los Angeles. For more information please visit jessicarowshandel.com.