CICADA: One of our favorite lines from “Cherry Blossoms” is “and she hands me cherry blossoms / in the shape of defiance.” Can you talk a little bit more about the relationship between soft, beautiful things and defiance?
TOPAZ WINTERS: I believe softness and defiance are interdependent; one cannot hope to exist without the influence of the other. The push-and-pull juxtaposition of both tends to crop up often in my work, perhaps because I write extensively about mental illness and healing from the trauma created by our own minds. I believe that, in a world that consistently pushes us to toughen up and sharpen our edges, the truest defiance is in softness. It is the most beautiful type of revolution. Opening up to love, even when others urge us to shut down. Choosing tenderness, even when it is foreign and uncomfortable. Again and again and again.
CIC: “Love in Goddess-Speak” deals with the feeling of being caught between two cultures. How can poetry help you find a balance when you are feeling pulled in many directions? How does it help you explore and celebrate all your identities?
Esta historia es de la edición May/June 2017 de Cicada Magazine for Teens and Young Adults.
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Esta historia es de la edición May/June 2017 de Cicada Magazine for Teens and Young Adults.
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Queen Persephone
She has long red hair to her waist and she lives in a yellow house with the paint peeling off like the sunburn on her shoulders. Her hair is creased from a recent braid, undone, and it lies beside her on the grass so that her back is exposed to the afternoon sun.
Embrace The Monstrous: An Interview With Nino Cipri
CICADA: Both Jeremy and Merion gravitate towards all things fanged, tentacled, and undead. What kind of comfort/empowerment/affirmation can be found in embracing the monstrous?
A Lesson In Contrast
On a trip to the drugstore, a young girl’s eyes scan the shelves like a world war 2 sniper.
Worlds as Bridges an interview with Debbie Urbanski
CIC: In “The Thread,” the concept of soul mates is taken to a pretty chilling extreme. Why do you think this concept can be so damaging? What kind of power can be found in not “living the life everyone expects you to live”? DU: I think any concept that is applied equally to everyone is probably damaging. Because that assumes we’re all alike and that we all want the same thing. If you don’t want that thing, then you have to pretend to want it to be considered normal. Nowadays, thank goodness, we’ve become a lot more accepting of many of our differences. Yet with love and romance, we still seem to apply this one storyline to everybody’s life: you meet someone, you kiss etc., you fall in love, and you live happily ever after with them. How many times do we hear that story, in songs, movies, fairy tales, books, by the time we grow up? Not everybody wants that particular story, but it’s really hard to exist outside of a narrative that’s everywhere. It’s hard to feel normal and good if you’re not part of the story. On the other hand, it’s hard to pretend to be someone you’re not. It takes up so much energy. And it only gets harder the longer you do it. I don’t think it’s sustainable.
Dreaming
Clockwork hearts don’t dream, they inform me with bony smiles, their soft fingers patting my head, pinching sharp nails on my scalp, searching to tear something, some exposed wire or weakness.
Love Letter
I wish I could spill my pain into a bottle, funnel it through him.
Choosing Tenderness: An Interview With Topaz Winters
Topaz Winters writes & heals. She is in love with most quiet things & resides at topazwinters.com.
Cherry Blossoms
We are holding hands in the barrel of a gun. I am searching the briar patch for something other than apology, and she hands me cherry blossoms in the shape of defiance.
What Genre of Story Are You Living In?
Good morning, sunshine! It’s a regular day in the life, except you’re unexpectedly at the center of like five love triangles and/or your mom is screaming that you need to find a spouse who’s rich enough to support your ten younger sisters and/or the fate of the human race is suddenly resting on your shoulders. Clearly, you’ve entered a fictional world through some blend of magic, mystery, and staying up way too late last night reading. The only question is— which world is it?
Telling The Bees
There was a girl who died every morning, and it would not have been a problem except that she kept bees.
