contemporary witchcraft​

Issue 12

unraveled by cancelled flight plans, we fall
asleep on arid tarmacs paved under
cheap industrial rows.

at witching hour, dashboard
designers awaken from charmed
bracelet, himalayan salt slumbers. fingers
intertwined, spell-casting designers in red sundresses
twirl between dim lantern
streets of fuel trucks, bus
pits, u-haul chandeliers. look
for corporate beauty in commercial zones,
dream of vintage villages with swan
lakes, marigolds, ice cream in the undergrowth.

​nutella and caramel lattes melt
over tongues sweet for kissing. tasting.
discovering lost groves. here,
wisteria and grottos waste under
depots until covens track foot
prints over hotel sheets. summoning higher
thread counts. scattering vestiges. turning
electrical fields into fae markets. goblin markets.

smog towers convert to diffusers autumn
breeze: whiskey. honey. birch.
concrete graffiti strings into grimoire
prose. vacant billboard ads shift into tarot
truths. turn gothic. turn wine into
sandalwood. rose. pinot showers. lathered
in focaccia’d alchemy, craft
fairs, glitter comfort words.

designers two step with shadows.

at dawn, air traffic freight line congestion
resumes. we awaken to stagnant
ac, burnt coffee. flights still delayed, we
hide away with interlocked legs. pour
over acoustic playlists, fashions.

weary eyed. (dis)illusioned

​picking at skin, scratching traces of
designers. ghosts

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​Jared Wong lives in the Yukon and within the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. His work has appeared with Horse Egg Literary, Imposter, Bywords, 7Mondays, Filling Station, Livina, Empyrean, and on sticky notes and fogged on the sides of slurpees.

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