This selection, chosen by guest editor Shira Haus, is from Gastromythology by Jessica Manack (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2024).
Highway Lifecycle
The vultures have all day.
They glide above us, above the trees,
smirk at our urgency
and profit from it, as below we do
their dirty work, speed through the streets, lay waste
to nature, pile carcasses on the side of the road.
Paint stripes as if to say: here, you feast,
erase our shame so we may kill again
as you watch from above, keeping our secrets
Jessica Manack holds degrees from Hollins University and lives with her family in Pittsburgh, where she serves on the editorial teams of Belt Magazine and the Pittsburgh Review of Books and as poetry reader for TriQuarterly. Her recent work explores her family of origin, the melting pot of America in general and northern Appalachia in particular, and the challenges and joys of girlhood, womanhood and motherhood. Her writing has appeared widely in anthologies and journals, and her poetry collection Gastromythology was published in 2024 by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, as the winner of their First Chapbook Contest.
Shira Leah Haus (she/her) is a queer, antizionist Jewish writer from Michigan. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Poetry Magazine, Passages North, Poetry Northwest, and wildness, among others. She has received support from the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and placed third in the 2024 Pinch Literary Awards for poetry.
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