Empty Hold, by Melissa Monroe

Her five children, with one kitchen knife.

 

Later on, she blamed it on her husband.

Her husband, he was not empathetic

that she did everything alone.

She got up on her own every night,

washed the diapers alone,

lugged everything by herself,

reared the children and smiled,

with her nails she scratched

hardened eggs from the stone floor.

 

And Doctor D. was always there.

He was against their marriage,

yet for their wedding he gifted

them a house, a car, and money.

He’s lived with them from day one. 

 

He named all the children.

He breathed on the napes of their necks

when they lay in the marital bed,

and the moment they fell asleep,

he slid in between the two of them.

He said everything was his, after all. 

 

And indeed—no one else understands her.

They say she has completely lost her mind, 

they say she bawls all by herself,

though she’s alone just the same,

she’s not alone just the same:

 

in his white lab coat that reeks of chlorine,

with his cold hands, his smile,

through the walls, as was his habit,

Doctor D. visits her here too.

Anna T. Szabó

Anna T. Szabó is a Hungarian poet, writer, and translator. She was born in Transylvania (Romania) in 1972. She has published eleven volumes of poetry for adults, eight books for children, and four short story collections. She has received several literary prizes and is an elected member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts (part of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences). She also writes essays, newspaper articles, and gives lectures. Her poems are often used as lyrics by various performers. She lives near Budapest with her husband the novelist György Dragomán.

Ági Bori

Ági Bori is from Hungary, and has lived in the United States for more than thirty years. She translates between Hungarian and English, and her translations and writings have appeared in 3:AM, Anomaly, Apofenie, Asymptote, The Baffler, Hopscotch Translation, Hungarian Literature Online, Litro Magazine, Northwest Review, Points in Case, The Rumpus, Tablet, Trafika Europe, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. She is a translation editor at the Los Angeles Review.

Melissa Monroe

My work explores the intensity of being alive. I transform emotion into sculptural forms that slow time and inspire wonder. All the work becomes a mask—radiating beauty while holding life's harsher truths. Hidden in color and play, I am vibrating just under the surface, where sadness, love, and joy all exist together. Nothing is separate, yet I still try to untangle it so I can see clearly. I am a multi disciplinary artist creating my visions in textiles, sculpture, and acrylic paintings. I am self taught and have been a full time artist the past 11 years. I explore my own spiritual practice through mask making; this is further enforced through wearing and performing in them. I  create video installations of myself with the masks to be projected for live music performances Since 2021 I have expanded my understanding of texture and shape creating handmade rugs and textiles. My designs are informed by my experiences painting and my love for pattern and abstraction. Each new medium I work with informs my process, weaving  and connecting each new idea into all of my mediums. This in turn expands my iconography and purpose.