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State of Change
Jesica Carson Davis
A dramatic temperature drop can cause, precipitate
change in state. The dishwasher in our garage
still thick with remnants hauled Chicago water
haunting its guts. The memory of how hard it is
to navigate moving
to a country where you don't know
the language, how to swim in it. We learn
parameters for interaction
acceptable behavior social constraints
through observation hints picked up
as course correction. A hard suggestion.
I make to-do lists action and consequence
desire a strikethrough. The transported dishwasher
sits atop of this week's list: call someone
to install, connect tubes and pipes
hope that nothing cracked in cross-
transit 's drive plus days outside
in a winter waiting place. They say it'll snow
tonight I open
my mouth for the future
ice to melt into present
water to cross
my tongue. It is done.
This is to become.
change in state. The dishwasher in our garage
still thick with remnants hauled Chicago water
haunting its guts. The memory of how hard it is
to navigate moving
to a country where you don't know
the language, how to swim in it. We learn
parameters for interaction
acceptable behavior social constraints
through observation hints picked up
as course correction. A hard suggestion.
I make to-do lists action and consequence
desire a strikethrough. The transported dishwasher
sits atop of this week's list: call someone
to install, connect tubes and pipes
hope that nothing cracked in cross-
transit 's drive plus days outside
in a winter waiting place. They say it'll snow
tonight I open
my mouth for the future
ice to melt into present
water to cross
my tongue. It is done.
This is to become.
Jesica Carson Davis's work has appeared in The Laurel Review, Storm Cellar, Stoneboat, Zone 3, Columbia Poetry Review, and other places. She studied poetry at the University of Illinois, worked as a typesetter for the University of Chicago Press, and was the final Alice Maxine Bowie Fellow at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. She's currently working on several manuscripts of poetry and an ongoing project making poemboxes, which sculpturally interpret her words. Jesica lives in Denver, where she works remotely as a technical writer for a software company. Find more at jesicacarsondavis.net.
About the work: “Much of my current work deals with the act of becoming, beginning again, wanting to know, searching for the source of a metaphorical glowing. Mouths opening, with focus on that action over what might be said. When I told my husband I wrote a poem about the dishwasher, but that it wasn’t actually about the dishwasher, he said “Honey, it’s never about the dishwasher.””
About the work: “Much of my current work deals with the act of becoming, beginning again, wanting to know, searching for the source of a metaphorical glowing. Mouths opening, with focus on that action over what might be said. When I told my husband I wrote a poem about the dishwasher, but that it wasn’t actually about the dishwasher, he said “Honey, it’s never about the dishwasher.””
The Art
“Fel Beetle” by Stefan Kellar.
Pen and ink.
11”x14”. 2018
Stefan Kellar is a 25-year old artist working out of Fayetteville, AR. His work displays a style reminiscent of messy notebook doodles with a symmetrical balance. Kellar prefers to create mixed media drawings reflecting the state of the artist, ecology, entomology, and how it all coincides. He primarily focuses on consciousness and pressing works that reflect the state of mind. Each insect that Kellar incorporates demonstrates his detailed research of their life cycles, folklore/myths, and contributions to our everyday lives. Indulging in under-appreciated aspects of life, his interpretation reveals that consideration for the beauty that surrounds us is obscured. His idea of what diverts us entails surface-level desires like materialism and consumerism, by which Kellar believes most of today’s society lives. He invites you to step into his beautifully eerie, yet comforting work that exposes our anxieties and fears and speaks to our personal struggles and progress.
About the art: “While many are obsessed with mystical beings in fantasy stories (eg. Chimeras, Minotaurs, etc.), I think of the unappreciated beings— the insects. I am deeply in love with insects and am a striving self-proclaimed entomologist. Insects and the occult have always fascinated me and in this work, I combined the two. I researched folklore and origins of insects before combining them to create things such as Fel-Beetle.
This painting is from my project titled “The Codex of Occult Insects” in which I describe through art many insects of another world.
Throughout the project, I created life cycles of a mythological insect, that does not exist but in my imagination.
My intent is to create different occult insects, their life cycles, and writing about each of the insects as if you were looking at a science book.”
About the art: “While many are obsessed with mystical beings in fantasy stories (eg. Chimeras, Minotaurs, etc.), I think of the unappreciated beings— the insects. I am deeply in love with insects and am a striving self-proclaimed entomologist. Insects and the occult have always fascinated me and in this work, I combined the two. I researched folklore and origins of insects before combining them to create things such as Fel-Beetle.
This painting is from my project titled “The Codex of Occult Insects” in which I describe through art many insects of another world.
Throughout the project, I created life cycles of a mythological insect, that does not exist but in my imagination.
My intent is to create different occult insects, their life cycles, and writing about each of the insects as if you were looking at a science book.”
