dancing girl press & studio, 2024

142 pages

Post-pandemic society, grief, loss, hauntings, and the perils of technology all play a role in this collection set amid the wreckage of the world we once believed we lived in.

PRINT EDITION AVAILABLE IN THE SHOP...

 

             

     from TECHNOGROTESQUE

The machine is a ghost box,

a goblin keeper. A radio to

the beyond. Is part séance,

part shindig. All the dead

 

in their best shoes

sliding into the frames

of birthday party photos

like they belong there.

 

My own mother would not

stay down for years.

In dreams, insisted she was

still among the living,

 

pinging the notifications

box with cold fingers.

Each spring, I listen close

while the dead rattle

 

the keys all night long.

Each message not from

the grave but the garage

where we stowed boxes

 

full of drained batteries

and questionable remotes.

The broken laptops.

the dead hold close

 

to their chests and whisper 

into. Where we all go 

someday, into pixels 

and cake and tinseled stars. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kristy Bowen is a writer and book artist based in Chicago. She divides her time writing dark and delicious things across many genres, making books, zines, & art, and penning creative lifestyle content for various websites and publications. She blogs about writing, art, horror, and other miscellany at DULCETLY: NOTES ON A BOOKISH LIFE. Raised in the wilds of northern Illinois, she lives and works in a beautiful, but drafty, art deco building near the lake with her cats, her love, too many books, and a vast collection of thrifted finds--only some of which are haunted. 

She is the author of a number of chapbooks, zines and artists books. Previous collections include COLLAPSOLOGIES and AUTOMAGIC. Visit: www.kristybowen.com