Self-Portrait in Winter

By Cass Garison

Sun a thin-red lip,

dim through slit in chthonic

cavity, each berry

and branch unburied—

a relic, ossified artifact

of earth’s symmetry.

She slouches, shoulders

pitched, tongue static as a bell

without breeze. In this myth

Persephone molds magpie

from mandible, thrush

from tibia, hummingbirds:

knots in nerves twisted

at varying degrees.

In between her tooth

and cheek: a single

pomegranate seed.





About the author:

Cass Garison currently lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and studied English and Classical Languages. Cass has work published or forthcoming in River Styx, Nimrod International, The Penny Dreadful, Third Point Press, and others and is currently a Poetry Reader for the Adroit Journal.