"Flame" by Kelly Emmrich

On the savagery of my ancestors by Enshia Li

I died a hundred years ago
   in a red dream—

As I press on it,
   it blooms open now: you

were there with me—or
   do you not remember

the way the earth
   swallowed our ankles

with bracelets of bone?
   The deathless march

of soldiers at our backs?
   Our necks—yoked

together by the red string
   of time. Then, we had

no language to hold
   what wounds we had

to bear. Only the dull
   blue ache of a naked dawn.

But take these words
   now, the song we were

to think ourselves
   without. Cut your voice

against the animal they forced
   down your throat.

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Enshia Li is sophomore majoring in English Literature and East Asian Studies at Stanford University. Previously, her writing has been recognized by the Adroit Journal and the Poetry Society of the UK, and her poetry is also forthcoming in DIALOGIST.

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​Kelly Emmrich is an illustrator and animator living and working in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her work has appeared in the magazines Moonhood Magazine, Dream Noir, and Meat for Tea. She studied creative writing and animation at the University of Mary Washington. She is currently working as a beer label designer for a microbrewery in Afton, Virginia and also as a freelance animator and illustrator.