Cauldron Anthology Issue 9: They Who Were Spurned cauldron9finalproof | Page 32

Ceres Invokes Famine
K ari A. Fli c ki ng e r
Flocks line the surface now
where abundance once
overwhelmed her mighty
arms—the plenty flows
through layers of liquid
ammonia, sulfuric, anti
Ram her with a boring
orb of transformation.
This sow will be fit for
mooned cow. Cows
start the most pleasing wars.
She will salt your fields. She will.
freeze in the stream of
abysmal searing space.
She will be sewn up
just as needles tapped
to telling lengths—she
will be earthen entrails.
There is beauty in the cold
the bitter—the iron
dense indurate, and it can be
terrible, and sublime.
Pick up the axe.
The oak’s assailant
instructed—a pale
wounding force shook
her celestial body.
Pick up the bough
dryad. Ribbon bound
she obliged, wide
eyed, thick-thighed.
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Cauldron Anthology