By Bridget Bell
Featured Art: “Two of a Kind” by Ana Prundaru

The next morning, the sky stitches itself back
into its routine arrangement of blue, and this,
too, is a type 

of betrayal. The absurd nonchalance of
cumulus clouds. Their fluff a fuck you of
evaporated rain, and how dare 

the bluegill gather in the dock’s shadow, dumb
mouths falling open and closed, with something
like blood in the seams 

of their gills. And there, too, in the lake’s reflection, those ridiculous
clouds, so the slim fish bodies flash through the water and sky, flaunting
their life from every visible angle.

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Bridget Bell’s (she/her) poetry collection is All That We Ask of You Is to Always Be Happy (CavanKerry Press 2025). She teaches composition and literature at Durham Technical Community College, proofreads manuscripts for Four Way Books, and pours pints at Ponysaurus Brewery. bridgetbellpoetry.com