3 Poems by Amy Saul-Zerby


Black ink sketch of nude woman's torso covered in red and yellow ink

Fight Me for It

i am so silence
that i spent 6 years
writing around
myself

how silence
are you?

can you hold a candle
till the house is on
fire and call it
an accident?

how bottomless is
your desire
to be left
alone
forever?

i mean,
to be loved

i mean,
when they lifted
the cage from
over top of me

how much did i
mourn the loss
of the cage,

and would you
have even
missed it
at all

Not to Speak of How the Body

becomes a home becomes
a prison. not to linger in the

doorway (on which side)
of one’s own trauma. i am trying to

tell you it’s ok without lying.
trying to cut through the same noise

but differently and yes, it is
impossible thank you for asking

Hot Girl Summer

i can’t tell you
what to do but
i won’t let
that stop me

don’t start
with me if
you don’t plan
on finishing
with me

for god’s sake

shy dreams about
a fernet cocktail

i dream of ice cream
wake up hungry,
indulge

life is short
eat dessert first
et cetera

Amy Saul-Zerby is the author of two poetry collections, Paper Flowers Imaginary Birds (Be About It Press, 2017) and Deep Camouflage (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018). Her poems have appeared in The Rumpus, The Chicago Review of Books, Hobart Pulp, Peach Mag, and elsewhere. She is editor-in-chief of Voicemail Poems and author of the Notable Philadelphia column at The Rumpus.

Anna Pineda is an illustrator and mixed media artist from Southern California. They received their Bachelors in Studio Art at California State University, Long Beach, and have worked in technology and art throughout Los Angeles County. Their work has been cultivated through testing the limitations of specific mediums while keeping its content on visual human expression as well as familiar objects through free associative drawing. Check out Anna’s online portfolio or follow them on Instagram @a.spieql.


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