Scarlet: A Literary Journal - Jaded Ibis Press

Scarlet

A Literary Journal

Scarlet is a bimonthly blog dedicated to publishing the work of artists whose pieces give voice to the complexities of our multiple identities. In keeping with JIP’s mission to uplift marginalized voices, Scarlet aims to showcase bold and unique framings of the view from the margins, giving strong preference to writing that questions norms and provokes discourse.

Pieces of a Memory

The last moment I remember before succumbing to darkness is hearing Margaret’s scream. Shards of

“What I Learned from the Savage She-Hulk” and “Repairing the World”

What I Learned from the Savage She-Hulk after Aimee Nezhukumatathil With thighs that never endSome

“Pentimento”, “Breatharian”, and “Eye Patch Girl”

“Pentimento” i will lose sixty pounds and dissectsecond marriages their chalk outlines have even less

“Sludge”, “Baby Hippie” and “Spare Change?”

Sludge Daddy is dead.Crying will not bring him back;he can’t sense your grieving, little girl.

We’re Not Dating

But you asked if I’d work the registration table with you for the 10K charity

A Day When We Were Still Together

(Squeaking sound) I heard the sound outside the window and woke up, but still lying

An Ancient Manuscript

Enclosed: an Ancient Manuscript discovered most fortuitously by Albion (apprentice necromancer and writer here), detailing

“The Basketball Pole” and “I wake up out of your dream”

The trick was the sweat on your feetand the stick on the palms of your

“Birth”, “Reasons I Want to Be a Vampire”, “If This Were an Olivia Rodrigo Poem”, and “We Just Wanted to Dance”

Birth I read the newsIn between baby announcementsFrom two old roommatesWhile I was sitting on

I Don’t Know Eros

I’ve never kissed a soul. I have only kissed the small head of cat, all

A Frost Fate

Most of her life, she liked snow. She had attended a college in Canada called

“Rage Forest Brew”

Come closer, divorcees, theys, and gaysUnhappy middle aged wivesSalad servers and romaine lettuce eatersHear ye,

Auntie Barbara

Auntie Barbara is a successful woman. She flies between cities for conferences. She writes books

No Way Out

It was evening. The sun was almost down. The four of them sat at the

Think Like a Champion: 3 Tennis Mindsets for Winning at Everything

Naomi Osaka dashed to the net and, with a powerful forehand, strategically returned Yuliia Starodubtseva’s

“The Wild Rumpus”

I disembark my boat.I am far from home;my beard is long, my hair is longer,

“Home” and “Pickled”

Home An ode to Calliandra haematocephala Pickled Have you ever slit openIndian green chilies? Stuff

“Your Featherbed”

Yours was my firstfeatherbed.Box stitched billows ofwarmthfloating undera sea offlannel security. Your oversizedold puffy comfortersealed

The Perfect Omelet

So, you want to cook a perfect omelet, huh? Let me tell you, it’s an

“Unconditional”

Her unkempt hair covers her face and her little hands flail asserting her disgust This

“They Birthed Nations, Word Says”

The women who could not bear children at first: Sarai, Rachel, Rebekah, Hannah,Samson’s mother—name not

1980

Candies in a dish shaped like a leaf. Caramels with creamed sugar in the center,

“Trust”, “graveyards and parking lots” and “Might”

Trust In my first weeks of motherhood –a butchered belly busy reassembling its hip-wide slice,drenched

The Manet

“What do you think of this painting by Manet?” I’m studying vibrant green stems visible

“Your Wolf Heart”, “The Genealogy of Sand”, and “Dead, She Was Not Mourned By Any of Them”

Your Wolf Heart ~after a line in Jack Gilbert’s “How to Love the Dead” The

Lover’s Spit

He has never-met a bad-Sofia. Do you-want-children? What would you-name-your-daughter? She has known him for

“On Mountain Biking”

A montage of maple, sassafras, birch, and beech trees. Leafywaves, ridges, saws, hand and mitten

“Listen to the Hot Air Balloon Talking”

Van Gogh tried killing himself, but people still talk more about his severed fucking ear.

“The Bark of a Tree Was Once Gentle in the Mouth”, “Over the Valley of the Kings”, and “Lucy to Her Children Under the Awaash Sky”

“The Bark of a Tree Was Once Gentle in the Mouth” During war, famine spoilsthe

“What’s First To Fade”

JACK: Our fight will fade, yours will too. There’s no stoppage to the stoppage of

“Motherland Black”

I lung for that pollen sneezin’, sticky car seatin’, Atlanta heat, but it ain’t enough

“Diaspores”, “Portrait at the Border”, and “The Seedling”

“Diaspores” A broken clothesline leans against its shadow nothing to hang memories on through the

“Life in Wedding Anniversaries”

Till death do us part,for as long as we both shall live,She and He vowed.

“J’y suis, j’y reste” (Here I am, here I stay), “Allons-y” (Let’s Go), “Mademoiselle Mulligan”, and “jaywalking”

“J’y suis, j’y reste”(Here I am, here I stay) Across the cerulean chasm of id,I

Good Compost

prologue :: the roots have & to hold A man holds his still-beating heart in

“Becoming one of those people who writes poetry about their menstrual cycle”

…but you won’t hear me talk about any ‘divine feminine’ i don’t know her. and

Skinless

I was eating breakfast when my sister came into the kitchen without her skin. I

“By Invitation Only”, “Butterflies and Sirens”, “The Fall”, “Invisible”, “After the Assault” and “Last Will”

By Invitation Only Just when you think you can hear beyondthe mowers and raw hum

“The Baseball Lesson in August Wilson’s Fences”, “In Attendance of the Watch Night Service”, and “When The Hurricane Passed: Rubin Carter”

The Baseball Lesson in August Wilson’s Fences Baseball can teach you the cruelest of lessons,

“Safe” and “The Line”

Safe On my way to the obstetricianI pass a street of venders.Sparkling jewels reflect Soho

Do you need what I need?

Last Christmas, I was having coffee one morning with a friend at Starbucks. We hadn’t

“The Road”, “Left”, and “We Were Wives”

The Road I have nothing to say to the man at the cross in the

In Winter with Warm Tears

Mother loved a good dichotomy. That’s how it seemed to the child. In her blue

Superheroes in Sensible Shoes

“I always knew my grandmother loved me. She saved me, gave me any confidence I

“Birth of the Blues”, “A White Rosary”, “Collage – after Romare Bearden”, and “Childhood”

Birth of the Blues Was it Miles Davis’ “Kinda Blue” bringing me home to you?

Reaching for the Moon

Remembering. A beautiful word. And for the last decade, this was what Kathleen had done

“The Seventh Column”, “Anemone”, and “Health and Safety”

The Seventh Column Once again Diderot’s beautiful ruin standsin the corner of my mind,the great

“Cobalt Tears”, “Silent Parties”, “I Think a Painter Drives That Car”, “Red Lines”, “The Parlor”, and “Of Violets”

Cobalt Tears Before his body can form the needed musclesTo uphold the soaking load of

No Fury Like…

Medusa. There’s a reason they call you that. It’s not so much the mythology course

The 12-Year Old Decision that Now Haunts Me

They were to write about their career aspirations. Scrawly English words rioted across a sheet

“Neelakurinji”, “In the Ghazal (a Ghazal)”, “Drunk Friday Musings”, “Of Inquilab”, “A Villanelle”, and “Majnoon’s Grief (A Pantoum)”

Neelakurinji The blue mountains are purple again as though estranged lovers have washed up ashore

“Collateral Damage” and “Bamboo”

Collateral Damage i. then, as in the past, there were photographs of boys who died

Keeper of the Vortex

Agatha tended the Vortex. It was her punishment for not obeying the Prefect of the

When We Were Cowboys

When the nurse came into the room, I had just awakened from a dream. She

“Serenity Prayer for a Black Woman,” “Black and Blue,” “Kelly Price is Missing,” and “Light-Skin Chick Blues”

God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change for I cannot change
the kinks and coils of my hair,
the skin that criminalizes me,
the body reduced to what it can do and who for;

“In Tandem”, “Corpsing”, “Game of Thrones, S1 E7”, “Hudson Estuary”, “Alley Singer”, and “You, Again”

As my age gains on me, my mother stops short

of hers, buying toys yearly for my grown daughter —

Dust

“Daddy always loved the lake,” remarked Jelisa Lu. “He’d swim in the buff every morning at dawn. I’d hear him bellow, ONE-TWO-SIX!!! Then a big fat splash.”

“Queen of Swords”, “Claws”, “In Her Voice”, “Hunger”, and “Sometimes a Bird Outside”

He thought she was the Queen of Swords. She didn’t see herself like that, more like the Queen of Cups perhaps.

Bedding a Ghost

Sshhhck.

She has no idea where she is. Surrounded by blackness, like floating in a void.

Unwritten Rule

There’s a rope between me and the edge of the dock,

there to keep people from falling or jumping in.

The Pripyat Marshes

Some marsh plants have hollow stems, could be used as straws. The villagers would have known this, he says, could have taken a few on the march to the marshes, or better yet, pulled the pith from a young twig to make it hollow.

Sweetie

Fishing is what the older girls called it when I started out.

Mestiza

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

Land of the free.
I beam with natural born citizenry.

“Just Two Girls Revisited” “After the Hottest Heat Wave in Earth’s History””Just Two Girls Revisited” & “After the Call When You Learn Your Friend, Sick at Least a Year, Has Brain Cancer”

A bandaid on the road to stop the spread,

dogs process through their noses: goose turds, a seagull feather,

a flock of cancer cells flaps past.

Pulling Out an Ace

In kindergarten, you had a boyfriend, who sat on the bus next to you and held your hand

The Knife

The Johnsons had no pretensions that they from were a class down from even my working-class family, which was not saying much where we came from, except that, behind their backs, everybody called them ‘white trash’.

Shelter Choices

These are not the cats I would have chosen. I apologize every time someone tells me they are beautiful.

Frescoes Unadorned

That I woke up at all was not my intention. I’d reasoned with myself in a depressed state that I had had enough life lessons and experiences that qualified me to take a short-cut to the great beyond.

“The Pain Holder” “Many Unexplainable Pains” “Setting The Table” & “Lament For Winged Things”

Is she The Pain Holder now? my therapist asks.

Prisoner of the Château-Fort du Louvre

“Confess yourself,” said the priest, coming toward him through shadow and light. “Notable captive.”

Ụmụazi

Chukwu mo! Your air is the whitest version of white. Your voice is the softest version of soft. Your face no mortal or immortal has seen. Chukwu, I speak in my name and those of these two other Chi. We are back from our earthly sojourn with the souls you placed in our care.

Scarlet A Literary Journal

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Scarlet

A Literary Journal