By MEL ARTHUR
we gather safely under our bliss
and i perform a body that holds my sins
_____ asks
what do you feel in the silence
what do you feel in the warmth
what do you feel in the center of your being
whatdoyoufeel between
silence what–wheredoyoufeel
the warmth lies
herein lies the silence of taut skin / vein:dripped
a web of untangled sound / the ache / rain smell in
the essence of your being / how the night shudders its way into/
he finds it– / he finds it hard to let loving you be / a
Belated act
Please
Don’t ask
what consumption means when you peel
And i long to have to say i
apart my skin
miss you
My sunshine
when slime:gripped words
cherry:wine:guilt holding the line that
maybe, this is care repackaged
my flesh
that breathes as others look
as i cannot bear for them
the way you bared your soul full
a melting point of stuck. But
when you hold it with your gaze
At once and not
when you ask how to open up a body
sl:ow
kissed at my strings
divides over and over.
because i see how you enclose
a shame:love touch
in
to bare your soul
of lonely lies
you make the sky tender
when you prove that hurt can be
a person
and my limbs
ready to fall.
Writer | Mel Arthur ’25 | marthur25@amherst.edu
Editor | Priscilla Lee ’25 | prlee25@amherst.edu
Artist | Sofia Yadigaroglu ’26 | syadigaroglu26@amherst.edu