Fire limned with resentment, eating up the air until I choke—
this is my anger, gaslit, bewildered. No longer able to tell who should be sorry. Afraid for my blaze to meet yours and swallow us both. Unsure of my power. It desires to feed and grow, then smothers itself to soothe your indignation.
Once again I’ve stoked an ire in you I can’t understand—your fury that I dare to question what is fair between us. Your grudge eats away at me over days, until I concede rightness in favor of peace.
It leaves me chastised, a guilty hostage. But my anger is studying you and taking notes, learning to be more canny, a craftier bitch. One day she will outsmart yours.
Katie Curlee Hamblen
Katie Hamblen is a poet and current MFA candidate at Western Kentucky University. She also enjoys old British sitcoms and romance novels.
Scout Roll
Scout is a third generation artist from Baltimore who’s approach to making can be best summed up as, ‘Don’t be scared of art, make friends with it.’ After moving to DC for college, Scout has since completed three permanent murals, and opened her studio practice: Repeopled. If Scout could do anything, she would give everyone in the world a portrait, because everyone’s face is fascinating.
