BY DEATH, SHE LIVES

a feature by Jenna Vélez

and we watched Midsommar and saw ourselves in romantic isolation

and you hold my hand like a dying thing

that could be caressed to life

your breath is a sparkling pink

and i have known to love you today

and it feels like the so...

By Death, She Lives

a monthly column by Jenna Vélez

TW: sexual assault/rape; miscarriage

a lesson in firsts

Jenna Vélez

you were my first

boyfriend (n): a regular male companion with whom one has a romantic or sexual relationship

and i let you see me when my skin was cold in...

By Death, She Lives

by Jenna Vélez

flesh written

My skin lays my stories out

Like an aged map soaking in

Influence and fading afflictions

My skin births feathers to pluck out and

Dance with arms shaking to a church of drums

My skin holds ancestor whispers in red rushes

They a...

By Death, She Lives 

a monthly feature by 

Jenna Vélez 

pupil

The devil taught me

How to add and subtract

Chanting numbers in my head

While the children of the night

Bleached my skin with their songs

The devil showed me how to spell

While his spawn cut off my braids

Like run-on...

By Death, She Lives

               Jenna Vélez

I was born in a blood moon

Coughed up like vampire pearl

The smell of burnt skin

The char of women

Wise beyond their tears

Formed me by mortar and pestle

I emerged in the firelight

We dance and die by

Yet the water ebbs and flows

In...