I N V E R T E D
The Fissured Tongue Series
Fissured Tongue Volume VI Contributors: Crista Reid | Laura Gamache | Wendy BooydeGraaff and Susan Wider | Tim Carrier | Marie Williamson | Tor Strand | Mary Herrington Perry | brice maiurro | Amy Haddad | Carla Schick | Cady Favazzo | Dana Tenille Weekes | Janice Heiss | Jennifer Griffiths Orudjev | Serge Lecomte | Michael Thompson | Ann Wong WanYee | Robb Kunz | Velibor Baćo | Ruhi Jiwani
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Welcome to Fissured Tongue Volume VI
Volume VI is a whole vibe—it can be read as a meditation on how we hold on when the world feels broken. From Weekes’ love illusions that feels that love is but a liar and flips the script on affection, to Perry haunting us with memory’s shadows. And where Reid’s chaos is a body’s language, Haddad’s illness is painted with quiet light, "with the illusion of life," and Carrier, whose work moves through intimate spaces of friendship, language and spirituality, unfolds as a meditation on how connection is a form of resilience. You cannot help but hear Tim Carrier's confrontation with what it means to exist in this world, reminding us that art must be a straight-up act of resistance. And that’s just a glimpse into some of the pieces in this volume. Indeed, Fissured Tongue Volume VI speaks to the complexity and fragility of being, while also suggesting that when we connect, witness, and name, that these are the ways by which we can resist using the arts. Ready to feel something? Dive in. Vibe out. Fissured Tongue Volume VI is curated and edited by Nawal Nader-French, Editor, and Jesica Davis, Editor Work was selected by Yesica Mirambeaux, Allissa Balint, EA Midnight, Melanie Merle, Nawal Nader-French, and Jesica Davis |
Cortisol Ain’t Love But a Liar
by Dana Tenille Weekes Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025
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by M. H. Perry Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "You understand that this is Indiana? The land ravaged by the mining company is now
grown up with grass and studded with lakes the migrating waterfowl come to rest in between flights. While the visiting nurse looks after my son, I drive out here to photograph the birds."
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Etiology of a Broken Leg
by Crista Reid Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "In vowel sounds gutturally.
The birds are inside the house But I paused the singing. Perched and gesticulating Though not frequently."
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More Could Fall On Us
by Laura Gamache Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "newly wrenched from earth,
monster fist of roots shedding soil. A man materializes, ties yellow tape to cones, separates us"
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Two Poems:
Colors Floating on Water & Elegy For My Breast by Amy Haddad Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "A blown-out eggshell
marbleized pink and chick-yellow from an Easter long past wedged into a shot glass."
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untitled remember: a revolution
by brice maiurro Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "[...] social change is a spiral, rather than the linear climb I had hoped it was in my younger years. That being said, I believe in revolution and that it changes us and the world around us, and that inspired these words." --from the writer's process
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White-Winged Dove's Song
by Wendy BooydeGraaff & Susan Wider Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "Wendy and Susan have a regular habit of phone calls to discuss writing. Susan is often watching her outdoor bird feeders during these calls and cannot resist commenting on the bird visitors. One day she tried to describe a white-winged dove. Wendy mentioned later that she couldn't stop thinking about the bird. Her thoughts became poetry and Susan replied with nonfiction snippets about the doves." --from the writer's process
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Don't You Know All You Need is Sky
by Tor Strand Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "Full on & fast around the corners, my father always took them with ease,
jolting but in it, unwaveringly there in the high part of the mind just behind his hairline which isn’t all too bad for a man in his late 60s. He is almost to Whitehorse."
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Look At a Bird by Tim Carrier Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "You are my friend who says, Look at a mountain. Look at a bird— in new poems.
The L of your name was once a lion. Then a mouth. A raised arm. Then a staff. Its shape imparting direction to the animals & the land."
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Panniculus Carnosus
by Marie Williamson Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "Skin tag fringe forming after power wash
Hangnails and murmurs vitiligo All echoing The hosanna in a hay fever The heaven in a rising hemline"
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Two Poems:
What If Love Could be Found Sitting in the Basement of a Bookstore? & I have always loved by Carla Schick Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 " 'What If Love Could be Found Sitting in the Basement of a Bookstore?' was inspired by a poem by Timothy Liu, who was inspired by Hafez. During my adolescence I would sit in the basement of a bookstore on 5th Ave in New York and read poems, as though I were stealing words. I didn’t have the money to buy books and reading it in the bookstore seemed much more daring than going to the library (which I also did frequently). During this time I also grappled with the loneliness of being a queer, but not out, youth who found comfort in poetry and language." --from the writer's process
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Memory by Cady Favazzo Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "Here is the tree I named April when the month
was June when my dad was gone, inside, door locked, and my spoon was filled with peanut butter."
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Fortune Cookies
by Janice Heiss Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "Your best friend ran 10 miles per day, the week before she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.
You wonder why people drop things that break. You will never keep a boyfriend longer than a car. You dream in black and white because it’s cheaper."
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Muscle Memory
by Ruhi Jiwani Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2025 "Later, we lie on the ground, and he says,
I can’t move. Can you adjust around me like water? I don’t want to be the one adjusting, but [...]"
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