Issue 2: embodied
Saved
Shantell Powell
I was baptised in utero
but redemption doesn’t pass
the blood-brain barrier
(praise jesus!)
Mom wore a polyester permapress pantsuit
bright harvest gold.
Her baptist stood in the pool,
shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows.
Mom crossed her arms over her breasts,
elbows bumping into her nine month belly.
His broad damp necktie flapped at her face
as he held her yellow back and yellow shoulders,
then submerged her and her yellow pregnancy
beneath brightly chlorinated water—
a symbol of her dedication to God
in order to ensure my salvation.
As the water passed over her pinched nose
she held her breath with eyes scrunched closed.
All eyes on her. All eyes on me.
A two-for-one special.
While everyone cheered she ruminated on
the chorus from The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
Wrassling’s object lesson
Shantell Powell
The eighth wonder of the world
built like kegger in baggy grey
pants with big pockets
and brown leather belt.
A curly black mane
and long coiled beard
drape barn door chest in woolly mantle.
The Cuban Assassin don’t spend time sassing.
It’s down to business in the ring.
Big Stephen Petitpas is balding
but there’s hair enough for fat
fingers claw entangle grip.
A slight of hands.
Big Stephen slams face first to the mat.
A world wonder once said,
“When we street fight in Cuba,
we fight to the finish.”
While referee in reverie
Assassin reaches into pocket
pulls out an object—
An Object!
Snapped in the small of the back,
Big Stephen is fallen timber.
Assassin pockets Object.
If the ref don’t see it,
there be harm but no foul.
Fates frown on Cuba
and announcer is disgusted.
Disgusted!
by a shot both cheap and priceless.
Eighth wonder of the world
is hung out to dry
on Big Stephen’s clothesline.
Shantell Powell is a two-spirit author, artist, and swamp hag who grew up on the land and off the grid. She is an alum of Roots Wounds Words, Banff Centre for the Arts, The Writers’ Studio at SFU, Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, and LET(s) Lead Academy at Yale. Her writing appears in Augur, Solarpunk Magazine, Yellow Medicine Journal, The Deadlands, and more. She is a recipient of the Waterloo Arts fund for her manuscript in progress. When she’s not writing or making things, she wrangles chinchillas or gets filthy in the woods. Find her at https://c.im/@Shanmonster