I Have Been Lying in a Small Hot Heap
/ Michele Lent Hirsch
in bed for thirty hours. Though I
don’t know that my father is
about to die I do know that the body
is a nuisance. A dreamy mansion
on a hilltop with movie-star verandas but
a terrifying nuisance, a shark that
eats itself slowly or quickly but
eats itself. It will.
Mixed metaphors are never in
vogue because we can’t balance the
two at once. Cannot picture—what is this,
a shark is a sea creature we fear and
a Hollywood hill with a beautiful
home has nothing to do with sharp teeth.
Except when a person gets sick.
My father’s body was a shark
that devoured itself
slowly. Mine is a shark
that only looks
like a mansion.
Collaborative illustration
Estefania Mondaca studied fine arts
for five years at the University of Chile.
She works with oils mainly, but also
explores diverse media such as
charcoal and collage.
Gonzalo Navarro is an illustrator,
sculptor, photographer, writer…
thing-maker, based in New
Zealand. He is also an award nominee
author with his graphic novel
Aotearoa Whispers. He works with
different media, mainly ink and
watercolours, and enjoys the magic of
delivering a message without words.