Issue 32: dervish; wolf | poem and art by Melissa Leto
"the feeling of killing father lived in her body, it made her take a breath smooth as moon- / shine, feeling lived as a great cry and roar along the worm of her throat"
Welcome to KHÔRA, a dynamic online arts space produced in collaboration with Lidia Yuknavitch’s Corporeal Writing. Visit our Archive to read previous issues. Scroll down if you’d like your work to be considered for future issues.
dervish; wolf by Melissa Leto | art by Melissa Leto
the feeling of killing father lived in her body, it made her take a breath smooth as moon-
shine, feeling lived as a great cry and roar along the worm of her throat
digesting its way to song
she thought of killing her father
it made her feel like she owned her own body yes
that was it
the first poem she ever wrote wasn’t a poem at all: premonition, prophecy, end of bloodline
that feeling again, fuck that feels good, she shivered, like the thought of the woman in the forest
whose attic was a room she half lived in, real drug in her body, rapture of skull
her body jerked and her cunt clenched
you must leave a trail, they’d told her
you must do it in the night, you must leave a trail for them into the forest
she could use the knife he gave her as a child, the one that cut the poem,
that map, into her thigh, she snort laughed the irony of it then laughed from her gut
then came a scream that threw her shoulders back made her salivate
his was the only head belonged to a wall: no stag, no grizzly or lion or whatever dead head men
desired it was so soothing to think of she fell asleep there when the moon rose
the poem scarred into body lifted up like silver birds and a wild azure coat flooded her frame
her canines, her whole mouth a flock of daggers dropping from the sky
she knew to go to him that way that he would lull against the scent of her fur
elixir of moss and tonic of girl smell twisted into every hair with a spit of honey
Read dervish; wolf on KHÔRA.
Melissa Leto makes art near the Salt River on Hohokam land in Arizona. Her/Their work has appeared in Bloody Funny Zine, Shrew Lit Magazine, Tom Maxedon’s Word! podcast, and Write On Downtown. Their wordmaking weaves joy, grief, and trauma while infusing the interconnectedness of alive things on planet earth with queer love in realms of hybridity. They have an MFA from Northern Arizona University, are the lead facilitator for literary arts non-profit Revisionary Arts, and an editor for Rinky Dink Press.
More Issue 32 Highlights
Issue 32: Meet the new curated team | Featured Artist Charles Ritchie
Issue 32: Part 1: Meet Nadine | by Swati Sudarsan photograph by Michel O’Hara
Issue 32: Air | poem by Jesse Sorrell | sculpture by Sorcha McNamara
Swim around in KHÔRA.
Artists and Writers
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Team-based, collaborative, and curated, KHÔRA is a form that is continually opening. We invite you to join us in sustaining it together. We don't believe in rejections. KHÔRA’s 500 Words is about considering how multiple voices can be heard; how frameworks, traditions, and projects can inform each other; and how new perspectives emerge from collaboration and openness. If you are a visual artist or interested in sharing your artwork or images, ready about KHÔRA’s Images here.
Your words/images will always remain active in KHÔRA’s ocean, and you won’t ever receive a notice of rejection from us. We know this process is not perfect; we wish to stay open to the possibility that at any point, your work will be a fit for a curated issue or team collaboration. This doesn’t need to be a completed piece—think of it like a sample of your work at any length up to 500 words.
Once you send 500 Words, your work will remain in our inclusive and expansive space. You can send 500 Words more than once—there’s no limit to how many times you can send us new work; just no repeats, please. KHÔRA doesn’t publish previously published work, but feel free to share any 500 words you want as a sample (published or unpublished).
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With galactic gratitude,
Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal/KHÔRA squad