"Landlord" by Josephine Florens
Angelique Zobitz | Mother of What's Left
I’m only easy at night—
settled by wild.
I breathe best when others sleep,
when night creatures whisper
what it means
to move through the dark.
I peel myself bare—
breasts, hair, makeup, teeth, hips.
Owls write the vows—
I marry myself.
Crows gather, cawing—
crone, crone, crone.
Bar the door
to my hideaway home.
settled by wild.
I breathe best when others sleep,
when night creatures whisper
what it means
to move through the dark.
I peel myself bare—
breasts, hair, makeup, teeth, hips.
Owls write the vows—
I marry myself.
Crows gather, cawing—
crone, crone, crone.
Bar the door
to my hideaway home.
Angelique Zobitz is a poet and essayist whose work examines Black womanhood, diaspora, kinship, and the cultural politics of care. She is the author of the poetry collection Seraphim (CavanKerry Press, 2024), the chapbooks Burn Down Your House (Milk & Cake Press, 2021) and Love Letters to The Revolution (American Poetry Journal, 2020) with recent work appearing in About Place, Penn Review, and Obsidian: Literature & Art in the Diaspora . She can be found at @angeliquezobitz and www.angeliquezobitz.com.
Josephine Florens is a Ukrainian artist based in Germany. Her paintings explore identity, memory, and resilience through expressive color and symbolic form. Exhibited internationally, her works have appeared in journals and collections across Europe and North America.
