poetry – Ren Martinez

Her Plumage – Excerpts

Want to hear some excerpts from Her Plumage? While I was unable to participate, my fellow Quail Bell Crew members, Mari Pack, Ghia Vitale, and Christine Sloan Stoddard read some of their fabulous work featured in this anthology. You can check out more here!

Her Plumage

Here’s the latest anthology from Quail Bell Magazine, featuring myself and other fantastic members of the Quail Bell Crew. “A collection of essays, fiction, and poetry by female members of The Quail Bell Crew and select contributors. This is the third anthology by Quail Bell Magazine, a literary magazine for real and unreal stories fromContinue reading “Her Plumage”

Forensic Examination of a Murder Case

our love didn’t die quietly in the night it was a drive-by shooting the kind where a casual word becomes the one bullet that tears through the wall and into a heart that had already stopped beating should the rifling be inspected, your name will be written in grooves and divots the casing burns blackContinue reading “Forensic Examination of a Murder Case”

The Harris-Benedict Principle

the walls are faded with dreams she could never quite let go her bed sprawled with pale limbs and whispers in the dark sodium stains on her pillow-she flips it over, a blank slate echoes rattle in the cavernous space between costal grooves she ignores it in favor of the quadratic curve of her stomachContinue reading “The Harris-Benedict Principle”

I’m a terrible poet (and I really know that quite well)

Regardless, Anti-Heroin Chic has seen fit to publish my poem, “root system.” This is the formal invitation to read it at your leisure. root system

Joan of Arc

a civil war of short skirts and combat boots stomp through this body like a battlefield the mirror reflects the slip of curves and gendered expectations there are days when the proud line of cleavage is a well-honed blade of fierce femininity her curves are a study in aerodynamics; a dragon is born to flyContinue reading “Joan of Arc”

The Legend of Diana

I’m an Amazon built from the bones of my own broken body sometimes I can’t speak but for screaming a gaping wound for a mouth that calls for war thorns knot in my gut until iron-stained salt coats my lips a reddened smile that used to beg but now only bites the talons of myContinue reading “The Legend of Diana”

To Those Who Hate My Mother For Her Choice

I am the child that was never born a fledgling bird nestled in the egg of my mother’s womb whose flight feathers hadn’t even grown in before I was returned to the earth my mother’s choice had me fading back into the sky the carbon of my cells once more turned into stars bones exhaledContinue reading “To Those Who Hate My Mother For Her Choice”