Shannon K. Winston Issue 63

"The Ladder of Success" by Matthew Fertel

Shannon K. Winston | The Mulberry Bush

After Craig Arnold

A shriek      you slow your gait and wait
            ahead, a warm, dark lump      wriggles in a man’s arms

sweat trickles down your back       you imagine the creature
            in your arms       this lumbering thing

that screams in a city       you barely know
            and now you feel       even more alone,

unable to identify       what this thing wants
            you hate that your first reaction to all things is fear

in the blurry August heat,      you see a man who carries the thing
            they pant, heave, and sigh—

you, too, pant, heave, sigh      as if you’re also carrying this thing:
             this pig who fights to return       to the mulberry bush

where she escaped (as she often does)      to feast again and again
            her snout stained purple      with delight

she eats so much she gets a bellyache,       the man calls out
            the pig winkles her nose      her thick, black hairs glint in the heat

you imagine letting her go,       the full weight of her—
            may she stuff her face      with rough-sweet fruit

may no one ever tell her
            to take up less space,      to want less.

Shannon K. Winston’s book, The Girl Who Talked to Paintings (Glass Lyre Press), was published in 2021. Her individual poems have appeared in Bracken, Cider Press Review, On the Seawall, RHINO Poetry, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. Find her here: https://shannonkwinston.com.

Matthew Fertel is a Sacramento-based photographer who has worked in the Photography department at Sierra College since 2004. Before that, he was a fine art auction house catalog photographer in San Francisco for over 10 years.

Matthew's current work focuses on capturing the minutiae he encounters in his daily life. He seeks to expose the hidden beauty in the everyday objects that make up the landscape of our existence. Going to the same locations over days, months and years allows him to capture images under different lighting and weather conditions, and to see objects change over long or short periods of time. There is art hidden everywhere if you learn to see it.

Learn more at his website and on Instagram.