top of page
Writer's pictureHearth & Coffin Staff

Sistine

By Marisca Pichette



wonder whether they felt

green light slanting along tabletops

black light lurking in the upholstery

dancing orange twisting around

poles hanging above:

spears thrust into crumbling plaster.


wonder whether they felt

green light quiver and fade

black-green twist together, sink,

entering the final death throes of a passion

long extinguished by familiarity.

orange light laughing,

dripping down the arrows they used,

staining the table like

essential oils: patchouli,

cumin;

oil and plaster, charcoal and wax


pierced by a thousand tiny spears

to fresco a heart.



 


Marisca Pichette is a queer author based in Massachusetts. More of her work appears in Strange Horizons, Fireside Magazine, Coffin Bell, Vastarien, Necessary Fiction, and Plenitude Magazine, among others. She is the winner of the 2022 F(r)iction Spring Literary Contest and has been nominated for the Best of the Net, Pushcart, Utopia, and Dwarf Stars awards. Their speculative poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, is out now from Android Press. Find them on Twitter and Instagram, and on BlueSky as @marisca.bsky.social.

Comments


bottom of page