tears of the kingdom

 

in this realm, the kings do not cry—

that would be giving us something real. 

this is not the legend of zelda. the tears 

of the kingdom do not trickle down 

to form wells of mirth and memory. 

my lover does not watch over me

like a light dragon above the ridge.

instead, we plead with rulers

who mistake themselves for gods,

ask for crumbs off their crisp linen

tablecloths. tell me, why do i scrape

twelve grand off my paychecks

when bezos doesn’t pay taxes?

why do we the people never have

enough money, but when we question 

how musk earned his, we’re told

he earned it—the sentence ends there.

no mention of the labor margins,

the ruptured backs of workers.

we stare into the blood moon

and watch the monsters we already

killed multiply in the night. sand

descends on gerudo town. sludge

fills in the ponds of mipha court.

goron city is overtaken by capitalism

and prime rock roast. the rito

are freezing. the powers that be

can only see the kingdom through

the clouds, but it means they can’t 

see us gather in the forest, lying 

in wait for our time to strike.

 

raum

nat raum (b. 1996) is a disabled artist, writer, and genderless disaster based on unceded Piscataway and Susquehannock land in Baltimore. They’re the editor-in-chief of fifth wheel press and the author of this book will not save you, the abyss is staring back, random access memory, and others. Past and upcoming publishers of their writing include Gone Lawn, Split Lip Magazine, beestung, and BRUISER. Find them online at natraum.com.

 

 

 

Patrice Sullivan lives and works in Phoenix, AZ. Sullivan had taught painting for 25 years at Colorado State University. She received BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and her MFA from University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally. Her work is about memory and family.  Although she works from photographs, the paintings are not photorealism.  The paint itself, with its restive and gestural surfaces, embodies the memory with which she sees the past. And the past is her family, sibling rivalry, marital conflicts, divorce and adversity and their effects