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.