Fissured Tongue Series
Wonder Eye
by Christiana Brevet
Fissured Tongue Series Vol VII | May 2026
by Christiana Brevet
Fissured Tongue Series Vol VII | May 2026
“Split the Difference" by Robb Kunz. Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, 2024
Wonder Eye
standing in a digital country,
i hold a spare-thread argument with a version of myself i despise.
i am no longer that girl who lives in the purple chamber.
everything happened once in the purple chamber.
until i stepped outside and waited for someone to walk by so i could scare them.
sometimes i know the mask is wrong and i take it up anyway.
it’s like if you imagine you are hard at work in a dark room,
developing photographs of the places you used to live in.
and while you are pinning the photographs to dry, you cannot tell how old they are.
even though you have the eerie feeling they are from your childhood.
you keep waiting to recognize one of the faces in the portraits.
but all the people in the photos are smiling in a stilted fashion,
and distantly as if they were hired.
our troubled faces in a photograph come out developed in a compromised light.
the dream has given them a strange texture.
a red texture.
a peculiar morphing.
with no way to limit the exposure as i’d like to.
in true form, my eyes crumple under the abrupt intake of color.
i spiral out of the asking.
i hold a spare-thread argument with a version of myself i despise.
i am no longer that girl who lives in the purple chamber.
everything happened once in the purple chamber.
until i stepped outside and waited for someone to walk by so i could scare them.
sometimes i know the mask is wrong and i take it up anyway.
it’s like if you imagine you are hard at work in a dark room,
developing photographs of the places you used to live in.
and while you are pinning the photographs to dry, you cannot tell how old they are.
even though you have the eerie feeling they are from your childhood.
you keep waiting to recognize one of the faces in the portraits.
but all the people in the photos are smiling in a stilted fashion,
and distantly as if they were hired.
our troubled faces in a photograph come out developed in a compromised light.
the dream has given them a strange texture.
a red texture.
a peculiar morphing.
with no way to limit the exposure as i’d like to.
in true form, my eyes crumple under the abrupt intake of color.
i spiral out of the asking.
***
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About the Author
M. H. Perry’s work recently has appeared/soon will appear in venues such as The Sewanee Review, Boulevard, and The Penn Review. Her chapbook, The Country We Live In, was published by The Heartland Review Press, and her poem “Fragile Animals” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently is Master Naturalist in Residence at the Perry Farm, where she grows-to-share organic fruits and vegetables and tends a hundred acres of native plants. *About the Work
I conceived “151” as a meditation on loss—our environment, our loved ones. Its name alludes to the Book of Psalms which ends, as you know, with 150. *About the Author’s Process
I’m a firm believer in spending time each day in a quiet space where I can hear the muse when she speaks. If we listen, she will speak. |
About the Artist
Robb Kunz hails from Teton Valley, Idaho. He received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Idaho. He currently teaches writing at Utah State University and is the Art and Design Faculty Advisor of Sink Hollow: An Undergraduate Literary Journal. His art has been published in Peatsmoke Journal, Red Ogre Review, Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine, and New Delta Review. His art is upcoming in Ponder Review, Glassworks Magazine, and Anodyne Magazine. "My paintings explore the abstract simplicity of ordinary life and the deductive impulse to see ourselves reflected back in art. My medium of choice is oil and pencil. Using embroidery and fabric manipulation is a recent expansion of my artistic expression. Combining differing elements creates a dissonance that inspires and propels me forward in my work." |
