Menstrual Blood
Jesus bled menstrual blood from
the wound that gave birth.
Out of his side, a gaping vulnerability,
inviting a finger, a mouth,
a community baptised.
Continue reading “Menstrual Blood by Gavin D’Costa”
On Blood
The blood I scrub from the inside of my underwear is not the same as the blood I wipe from my mouth, not the same blood my mother lost when laboring over my birth, not what spilled from my grandmother’s head when her stepfather split it open for scrubbing a floor wrong. Not the same, but close.
Continue reading “On Blood by Kaylie Padgett”
Blood Magic
It was her first period for three months. Sitting on the lav with her knickers around her ankles and her knees falling apart, Mihaela saw the new slimness in her bare legs and grimaced. She thought of all the meals she’d missed since the promotion—the rushed breakfasts, the uneaten sandwiches, the insubstantial dinners—and how quickly it had become a matter of finding not the time but the inclination. Now she ate as irregularly and as little as she slept. No wonder her periods had stopped.
Continue reading “Blood Magic by Natasha C. Calder”
Denial in Cycles
girl born altered doomed a beast
the moon dies and
i’m not bleeding like i’m supposed to
Continue reading “Denial in Cycles by Mika Hrejsa”
One Day Mother
When cramps come,
With knotted stomach sickness
And hours curled
I remember one week of knowing you,
The children you named,
Those who’d have,
My eyes
And your hair.
Continue reading “One Day Mother by Eden Howard”
The Periodic Table
reared my brother to normalise the words:
‘I am bleeding from my uterus’
(he’ll thank me one day)
I’ll complain every time I bleed-
my potential
scares men with small minds.
Continue reading “The Periodic Table by Isabelle Kenyon”
BURNING HOUSE PRESS 