i am not an artist but a husk. 
they say when the feeling moves
through you, you cannot catch it 
like a fish, but instead you
have to let it swim. sometimes, 
i let it drown, you know. sometimes
i don’t care what the ringing 
means. sometimes i am against 
interpretation. i think i have come 
along. is that what matters? not everyone
can say that. not everyone can find 
their legs again. sometimes
the thoughts come out like something
i could wrap up and sell. sometimes
they just come out. there’s nowhere
to put them down. i could be fine
or i could be rampant, scavenged, 
soaking wet like a muskrat, holding 
tight a praisesong (god bless september!)
but if joy requires me to stand guard 
in the trench, i’ll do so. if it requires me 
to head first through the coal mine
i’ll do so. when you hear my canary call, 
you’ll know it is safe to come down.

Published February 9, 2025

ceara margaret hennessey is a tri state area based writer, artist, and cocktail designer. they received their b.a. in creative writing from Seton Hall University, where they won the 2019 South Wind Thesis Prize. their work appears in Hobart, Angel Food, and Paloma, among others. they currently work for the Center for Fiction.

Ilana Savdie (born 1986) is a visual artist working primarily as a painter. Savdie was raised between Barranquilla, Colombia and Miami, Florida. Her solo exhibition Ilava Savdie: Radical Contradictions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in 2023, presented an expansive view of her pictorial interests and artistic practice. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.