serotonin

Anonymous

For months, I’ve tried getting rid of the

demons that manipulate the marionettes in my

head, only to see those demons gave me

something to feel.

Something to get angry about.

Something to fight against.

Twin Violets

Vinamaratha Rao, PhD Candidate (G1-P3)

Beyond this door lies a forest

deep in the quiet riot of autumn.

The silence disrupted by the crunching of leaves

underfoot a team of interlopers, of which I trail behind.

In a clearing beyond the shadows of the thicket,

we approach two trees towering as one.

Two trunks bowed like backs to wrap their branches in an embrace.

 I blink

 In their place, Two women appear.

la mer

Vinamratha Rao, M2, Class of 2028

as the sun glints 

off beads of brine 

braided in my hair

I watch from my boundless home, 

a prison at times like this,

as my love leans

past the shore

Pinion

Vinamratha Rao, Class of 2028

fresh red streaks in the snow-white bank

seeping through fabric stretched across her back,

scored for each round after round

 in this mouth of hallways eating a tail of rooms.

A Brief Hx of Daucus Carota, As Read to the Admissions Committee

Linzy Kirkpatrick, M2, Class of 2023

Genetic modification is the process of altering the DNA of an organism. A process, of selective cultivation for traits deemed to be beneficial, beautiful, robust. In the hands of harvesters, what was wild becomes commonplace; countercurrents of cuisine built upon sturdier eats and thicker meats and drought-resistant grains, passed down to become culture. Somewhere along the way, an errant hand plucked up a root —forsooth! his plan turned humble purple or white to yellow, then orange.