On the Brooklyn waterfront, 
I wonder how soon the river will rise. 
The sky looks uninspired
when I plead with it. 
I want to see the planets 
my father showed me 
in Lacy Park, the green 
and purple sparkles I thought 
could only appear somewhere 
much more glamorous 
than San Marino. My mother 
wants to stay in California,
to have something to leave 
my sister and me to sell 
when we start our families,
but the fires are about to reduce 
the house’s asking price. 
Before that strange day when the new 
owner picks his favorite room 
to masturbate in, I’d like 
to carry my firstborn 
around every mold-stained corridor 
and point to the cracks I traced 
when the boundless contours of my life 
felt like New York Harbor thrashing 
farther inland over everything 
I decided to call my home.

Published June 15, 2025

Michael Juliani is a poet, editor, and writer from Pasadena, California. His poems have appeared in outlets such as the Bennington Review, Washington Square Review, Sixth Finch, Bear Review, SARKA, and NECK. He has an MFA in poetry from Columbia University and he lives in Los Angeles.

Louise Hindsgavl (b. 1973) graduated from Design School Kolding in 1999, where she studied at the Department of Ceramics and Glass. She is considered one of the most influential artists working with porcelain and ceramics in Denmark today.

In her subject matter she draws on mythology and fables as she delves into the unheimlich realms of human behaviour resulting in disquieting scenarios and monstrous creatures. Spanning from tiny figurines to large scale installations, the works come across as sometimes innocent and sometimes distinctly ominous – but always immensely attractive.

Louise Hindsgavl has exhibited widely in Denmark and abroad, and her works have entered into leading museum collections as well as been acquired by important art institutions, among them New Carlsberg Foundation, The Danish Arts Foundation, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, The National Museum of Sweden in Stockholm, and the MAD, NYC in USA. Among several prizes, she boasts The Prince Eugen Medal of “Artistic Excellence” awarded to her by the Swedish Royal Court in 2015.