Issue 33: dervish; wolf 2 | poem and artwork by Melissa Leto

"no girl bodies terrorized here..."

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.

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Melissa Leto, d;w, manuscript draft, mixed materials, digital photograph, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.

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dervish; wolf 2 | poem and artwork by Melissa Leto

Begin the series here.

hemlock

it was happening throughout what used to be called villages when what used to be called fathers owned what we were once referred to as daughters    until one day, despite her father’s warning to stay out of the forest, Faa came upon a rabbit  grazing hemlock

she thought to ask if they would be willing to donate their body,
full of fool’s parsley         for the stewing pot
do you wish to topple a giant?

rabbit chorused the request through warrens underground and soon, tens of rabbits emerged they wish to topple giants as long as they can graze so Faa cut saplings and grew
them outside her father’s kitchen window the thoughts he had watching her

were enough to make the hemlock mature overnight so that another child would not have to. and so it began, how Faa grew hemlock and became known as the whisperer of rabbits before she became the killer of fathers.       

Read dervish; wolf 2 on KHÔRA.

Melissa Leto, direct address, manuscript draft, acrylics, flower petals, digital photograph, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.

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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.

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Issue 33 Highlights

• Issue 33 is live! | Issue Highlights + "postpartum: three poems" by Mia Sitterson

• Issue 33 | Part 2: The Better Nadine | by Swati Sudarsan photograph by Michel O’Hara

• Issue 33: Holding Up the Monster Again to Make Sure | words and paintings by Deborah Stein

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Swim around in KHÔRA.

Artists and Writers

We’re looking for features and our future teams! To enter KHÔRA’s collaborative waters:

1. Writers, read about KHÔRA’s 500 Words here.

2. Artists, send your artwork to KHÔRA's Images here.

Team-based, collaborative, and curated, KHÔRA is a form that is continually opening. We invite you to join us in sustaining it together. If you love what you’re seeing, please subscribe, share, tweet, retweet, and post, and KHÔRA will be back soon.

With galactic gratitude,

Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal/KHÔRA squad

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