Trista Edwards

Poetry

X

              In botany, X denotes the genus is a hybrid, a node between of two different genera.

The stories have crossed.

I have collected them like curios

in tiny vials called poems.  

I have capped off their fragrances

with melted wax, rose dust & ink.

Here, in this one marked

You x everything

exists an entire grafted cosmos.

In it are diamonds & silken webs

& honeysuckle nights.

Our biographies imbedded, bred to lose

natural defenses. We yielded

crossbred varieties of the same scent—

when worn we call it an albatross.

Petite Madeleine

beetroot

dank barn dirt

rusty tools

Dutch tobacco

chlorine

cherry vodka

bee’s wax

thorned Ophelia

wet fur

wort

rain worm

campfire

peaches

burning  

Beaujolais

Rosa × damascene

I’ve traveled far to become,

become your salvation.

Water strewn across temple floor.

The beast of myself is full of defeat

& every story hauled across

the desert is just the essence

of another story. I have failed.

I am not a true species. I am

just the girl in the moon longing

to be a star. To shine & fall.

I don’t want to be your divinity—

Your nightingale. Your pink goddess.

I have bled & thirsted to become

a pretty little painting. The cross

of every color ever imbibed.

Look—these petals, aren’t they

as sweet as you once believed?

Trista Edwards is an associate editor at Luna Luna Magazine. She is also the curator and editor of the anthology, Till The Tide: An Anthology of Mermaid Poetry (Sundress Publications, 2015). You can read her poems at 32 Poems, Quail Bell Magazine, Moonchild Magazine, The Adroit Journal, The Boiler, Queen Mob's Tea House, Bad Pony, Occulum, and more. She creates magickal candles at her company, Marvel + Moon.