vulvodynia
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Here is bramble and thorn, stinging asp
and copperhead, alder tree and swamp. Here, the shreds of my first love strung on a low-hanging branch. Here, the ashes of a love I wasn’t allowed poured into a thousand yellow jacket nests. Here is buzz and sting, swell and ache, burn and burn. Not pictured: his sweet, shocked face as I pulled away from his kiss. How it is always rising up from the murky water. He resurrects and resurrects. And each time, I know again that this is my fault. |
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Ellie White holds an MFA from Old Dominion University. She writes poetry and nonfiction. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Crab Fat, Up the Staircase Quarterly, The Columbia Review, and many other journals. Ellie’s chapbook, Requiem for a Doll, was released by ELJ Publications in June 2015. Her first full-length collection is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2019. She is a nonfiction and poetry editor at Four Ties Literary Review, and a social media editor and reader for Muzzle Magazine. To see more of Ellie’s work, visit her website: elliewhitewrites.com.
Xiaofu Wang, born in Wuhan, China, works and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from China Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing (2013) and earned her MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art in the LeRoy E Hoffberger School of Painting (2017). Xiaofu is currently a 2018-19 fellow for the fully-funded fellowship Shandaken Paint School in New York City. She has shown her work in New York, Baltimore, Colorado, and Beijing. In 2018, Xiaofu’s work was featured in ArtMaze Magazine and Magazine Parcours. She was awarded residencies at Elsewhere Studio Residency and Art Farm Nebraska.