Current
Issue
Volume 12.2
Miriam Milena
—
red dream
as mountains curve west to meet
sea / as my little need hovers / swarm
of gnats with no direction / no
need / as cow eats the cabbage /
as ten years pass and still I do
not run to the mountains /
do not run to sea / have no
need for the largesse
of the man with the magic
penis / as medicine
cleanses me of amoebic
colony / my cervix / let the egg
cleanse my little need /
need to throw / eye
over shoulder / see him needing
me / as fog obscures mountains
some miles from his
window / dew the orchard / ice
whiskers of old homesteader /
his den and foxes / as lease sealed
with handshake forced my eye / forward to face gravel
drive / lonely commute / rural
town with no hospital / no
grocery / no neighbors / no
need except my little need
darkening sinister
skies above / air thickens
inches north / the forty fifth
parallel / as my need darkens
into red / not red
of foxes / not red apples /
not brake lights / not blood between
thighs / not red of Budweiser
bottles / not red thread / jade
talismans strangle necks /
just red of need / dreadful
need / need eclipses desire / as
need exterminates need / red
floods over mountains /
as the red of what I left
dripped from the nose / a stranger’s
face / swarmed with need /
Miriam Milena is an MFA candidate in poetry at Western Washington University. Her poetry and criticism have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Reed Magazine, Bellingham Review, and elsewhere. She is a winner of the 2026 AWP Intro Journals Project and has received fellowships and support from Brooklyn Poets and the Mineral School.
