This selection, chosen by guest editor nat raum, is from A Few Mythic Paths by Mari Ness (Porkbelly Press, 2024).
DAPHNE II
Did she later hate
the soil that trapped her roots,
the rain that drenched her with every storm?
The way men
stripped her of her leaves for crowns,
to celebrate their triumphs?
The knowledge that she would never see
another city, another sea,
race another race?
Or did she rejoice —
to know herself no longer bound
as virgin, mother, whore, or shrew
or crone wandering the earth?
To know
herself free from pursuit
free to listen to the wind?
To sleep when she wished,
sing when the wind rushed
through her leaves? To know
herself unbound to former tasks? To know
herself. To be herself:
god-defier, who stretched limbs into the sun
and tracked the dancing stars?
Mari Ness lives in central Florida, and has sometimes been spotted talking to live oak trees. Other work appears in multiple zines and anthologies, including Reactor, Clarkesworld, Uncanny, LIghtspeed, Nightmare, Nature Futures, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Baffling, Strange Horizons and Haven Spec. Mari has also been a finalist for the Hugo and Canopus Awards, and won the 2021 Outwrite Fiction Award.
nat raum (b. 1996) is a queer disabled artist, writer, and editor based on unceded Piscataway and Susquehannock land in Baltimore. They hold an MFA from the University of Baltimore and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Past and upcoming publishers of their work include Poet Lore, beestung, Baltimore Beat, Split Lip Magazine, BRUISER, and others. Find them online at natraum.com.
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