For this issue’s poetry, we couldn’t go past Shannon Connor Winward’s fairytale-like ‘When Brothers Go Wandering Off’. While not overtly YA, we were attracted to the idea that fraternal love can sometimes mean letting your siblings make their own mistakes. When Brothers Go Wandering Off If you get lost, I will search for you. If you call, I’ll answer. If there are gates, I will look around them but I will not cut off my finger just to give you a key. Here as a bird I find you, bound to a table set for kings. The liquor from her goblet lulls you into forgetting about the chains. I weep my little heart out for your manifold misfortunes. I grieve to see the once bold hunter eating carrion for the Queen. These spells you are ensnared in, Brother these witches that you fall for – they twist new shapes out of your intentions, and smudge your countenance every time. Shannon Connor Winward is a writer of speculative fiction and poetry. Her work appears widely in venues such as: Pedestal Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Strange Horizons, Illumen, This Modern Writer [Pank Magazine], Hip Mama Zine and various anthologies. For a full list of works published and forthcoming, or to read her accounts of writing, witchery, mommyhood, and general sassiness, stop by her blog.
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