This selection, chosen by guest editor H.V. Cramond, is from We are Now the Thing in the Woods by Lauren Parker (Bottlecap Press 2023).
Arson in the Foreclosures
There is a smell in the house
Of burning hair and charred wood
Oak crumbling and keratin curdling
You check the burners, the oven
No flames, no gas, the gas has been
Turned off for a month
No melting plastic of a bread bag
Set too close to the range
You try to not think of the time you
Left the burner on all day, with your cat
In the house, and you came home and
Put it out, rattling the knob like locking
Out a criminal, the flame retracting like
A secret
You check the candles, the heater
The backs of appliances, you unplug
Everything you can find
The smoke alarm, which you set off
Burning too many oily sandalwood sticks
Last week, is silent, just a constant red
Light like the end of a cigarette
You lie in bed, telling yourself it’s nothing
As your room fills up with smoke.
Lauren Parker is a writer, zinemaker, and visual artist in Oakland, California. She has written for the Toast, Strange Horizons, The Racket, Xtra Magazine, Catapult, and Autostraddle. She is the author of the poetry collection We Are Now the Thing in the Woods with Bottlecap Press, The Dark Way Down with Animal Heart Press (2025), and Spells for Success: 40 Spells to Set Intentions and Manifest Everyday Wins with Simon Element (2025). She also has a newsletter, Do You Want to Do Some Witchcraft?
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