Aunt Lynn’s Painted Ladies

You promised me butterflies,

But all I received was a caterpillar—

Small, ugly, and creeping,

A tiny, wriggling thing.

You told me to be patient,

So I waited, feeding her daily,

Nurturing her hidden potential.

Days passed, and she vanished,

I found her then, encased

In a cocoon—brown and gray,

A secret wrapped in silence,

Waiting, waiting as you advised.

One day, she emerged,

Wings bespeckled,

Orange and black,

Yearning to soar.

So, I let her fly away,

Not knowing you’d soon follow.

Now, both of you drift,

Gone from my grasp.

Dietrich

Rebecca Dietrich is a poet from Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her debut chapbook Scholar of the Arts and Inhumanities (Finishing Line Press, 2023) won the Literary Titan Book Award for Poetry. She has also published The Last Lullaby (Bottlecap Press, 2024) and On Colonized Ground (Alien Buddha Press, 2024). Dietrich’s poetry has been featured in Red Coyote, Havik, Steam Ticket, and elsewhere. She holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Stockton University. You can follow her on Instagram @limericks_and_asphodels

 

 

Jennifer McBrien, a Baltimore artist, navigates the realm of embroidery with a skilled hand, intertwining freehand machine and hand stitching to create evocative portrayals of women, birds, and hybrid figures. Often featuring female bodies with bird heads, McBrien’s compositions transcend traditional representations and delve into complex themes of femininity, liberation, and connection with nature. By incorporating the Toile pattern into her textile works, McBrien explores the historical and cultural associations of the fabric art tradition, while simultaneously reflecting its reemergence onto the broader art world scene. Her pieces resonate with a renewed appreciation for the power and significance of textiles in contemporary artistic discourse.