Eleanor Fuentez
Content Warning: Slurs, sexual/domestic violence

christina on her hill
refusing to die—
like Sisyphus
blind and drunk and motionless—propellance
the delative grey sky
and feral grasses
covering your wasting body
blonde to green to black
as estuary algae—or—moth-eaten
pink cotton
under sun and moonless
avoidance of light
slow crawl—elevations of Dover—descendence
as Gloucester and Poor Tom
body—your wasting—covering
desaturated earth
farmhouse wood-shacks and wintered
fields—faceless—pilgrimage
the rye seed
crushed under nails as Sisyphus
my poor sister
framed—and i gaze—and i paint
our national sin
motionless—beyond canvas, a meek, a mere
American—painter—camera
passenger
her—charioteer
hello god
horizontal body
on field—not
intimate but divisible
desire’s washing hush
dew wet
every cell pollen, every speck
of dirt
at once
vaquero
i only heard the asthmatic
wheeze of your boots
on the wind
gasp, after gasp
echoed in the back of a rust
-washed pickup
when i inhale
i can still taste the utah
salt-flat, under your palm
your footprints
in sand. smell the motor-
oil sweetness of nicotine
honey
under your tongue
you cannot spit out
these bullets, rigid, lodged in each lung.
you tell me
you cannot speak english,
but outside this room, by payphone, i know
you call her baby
so i am prostrate
highway scouted
for motel chain, toilet-block, cheap-skate
escapes
each month passes, and i endure your absence
swollen inside me
not biological, impossible
but to dream
to be that fat cow you covet
all heavy with seed
in a faraway country, i see, you return on your stallion
centaur. my back bearing
your weight
the black-glass of the milky way
always, always threatening
to break. my cowboy,
riding into sunset:
we exchanged glances as well-trained actors
on stage; tomorrow, he’ll disappear
in one take.
Author: Eleanor Fuentez writes poetry, prose, essays and songs. Her work is focused on human language, on transcendental philosophies, and on the meaning of life. She is also very, very pretentious. Eleanor studies Western Civilisation, though is planning on pursuing a career in medicine. If her work does one thing, she hopes it heals.
Artist: SaBelle Pobjoy-Sherriff is a third year fine arts visual arts student. Her art practice uses narrative and mythology to create obscure illustrations and sculptures. Using acrylic paint and coloured pencils she creates vibrant worlds and creatures. Her current work focuses on the current climate crisis and the idea of corrupting escapism. You can find more on her Instagram @SaBelleeee.
Editors: Willow Ward and Hannah Vesey