"The poet is of no party." Baudelaire
Our manifesto is an act of substantiation.
We reject all forms of futilitarianism, in whatever disguise.
We believe that comedy is the song of the village and tragedy the song of the goat.
We believe what is written in the books, but now we want to see for ourselves.
The single idea, beating on the same doors in vain.
The analogue and the invention.
The death cell.
The first permission.
Though we watch the stage for things to happen, though our minds wander.
By ourselves in the green field, playing our diversion.
Though the story begins with the loss of a home.
Out of the machine, we shift restlessly in our seats.

Issue: ELEVEN, WINTER 2022

13 | 12 | 11 | ARCHIVE: 1–10

{ Manifesto }

“Numbness is a feeling too”

February 4, 2023 Jessica Baran

Numbness is a feeling too

said the girl who told me
I was a boy

God's word tattooed
on my arm

How old
are we now

How we un-
disappear

Planets not
spinning

“A woman I love”

February 3, 2023 Jessica Baran

A woman I love
somewhere is dying
I sat in a park
My grandmother
came to mind
I was not taking the medicine
I was supposed to
I      shivered
My own words
             shaking me
The thoughts that drove them
How real     they may
       or not
       have been
Flowers everywhere

“Time goes”

January 29, 2023 Jessica Baran

Time goes
The story

stays
A city

A landscape
A place to be

This one
true life

Asleep
I shake my head

A seagull
with a fish in its beak

flies over
the highway

Lands
Eats

A manufactured
scenario of safety

The idea
of a country

Lives of the dead
we’ll never know

Mystery
complete