night balm quatern.
By Kelsey L. Smoot.
“your fingers curl in my hair when / the boy in me needs to be held / you tend to him like broken skin / apply pressure where he purples“
Boy at beach by Susan Anne Russell.
the boy in me needs to be held
needs ear pressed to chest nose to neck
needs breath dancing across forehead
creamsicle sky slipping from sight
your fingers curl in my hair when
the boy in me needs to be held
you tend to him like broken skin
apply pressure where he purples
i struggle to still in the night
a guineafowl caught in a snare
the boy in me needs to be held
a chickpea at your palm’s center
morning breaks like the man of me
you smile into my stubble
reminding me not to fear that
the boy in me needs to be held
The Blood Pudding – May 10, 2025
Kelsey L. Smoot (They/Them/He/Him) is a full-time PhD student in the interdisciplinary social sciences and humanities. They are also a poet, advocate, and frequent writer of critical analysis. Kelsey is the winner of the 2021 Sad Girls Club Spring Literary Contest, the 2023 The Good Life Review Honeybee Prize, and the Grand Prize Winner of the 2024 Button Poetry Video Contest. He is both Pushcart Prize nominee, as well as a Best of the Net nominee. Proudly, Kelsey the author of a chapbook titled we was bois together with CLASH! (An Imprint of Mouthfeel Press) and another chapbook, Muse, with Another New Calligraphy.
Artwork: Susan Anne Russell is an artist who has sold her work to collectors in Italy, Chicago California, and Florida. She is an author and Professor of the Arts and Humanities. She has exhibited in galleries throughout Chicago since the age of twenty. Her studio is located on a lake which she draws her inspiration. You can find more about her here.