Issue 23
Fall 2020
when does a body
alyssa hanna
i heard the nazis studied the stars.
i heard they asked twin children
their favorite constellations
and they all picked gemini.
when they got bored they decided
to investigate hell and her secrets
but lost all their research in the heat.
the hottest summers produce the greatest
visibility, the mugginess receding
to allow you to see brightness.
or maybe it’s the winter that does that,
bodies buried in snow pushing
their fingers towards the
tiniest of lights, frozen.
About the Author
alyssa hanna’s alyssa hanna’s poems have appeared in Reed Magazine, The Mid-American Review, The Naugatuck River Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, Rust + Moth, Pidgeonholes, and others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for Best of the Net, was a finalist in the 2017 James Wright Poetry Competition, and a semi-finalist for The Hellebore scholarship. alyssa is a Contributing Editor at Barren Magazine and works as a copywriter by day. She lives in New York with her three lizards. follow her @alyssawaking on twitter, instagram, ko-fi, and tumblr.