A brighter Future

by Mukund G.

One day this sticky chrysalis  

will melt away in moonlight 

I will emerge again  

a different being, transmuted, 

incomplete yet undeterred 

though mindful of the tender nerves within 

where shards of glass removed 

leave sharpest memories. 

I must choose to fly 

or else remain upon the shaky ground of sorrow 

that promises a seismic fracture.  

Eyes closed, I say that willful forward motion  

overcomes inertia’s tangled roots. 

My footsteps lighten. 

Respirations come and go unhindered. 

Peace and freedom lead me by the hand 

The unwalked path shall tell us where to go. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mukund Gnanadesikan’s poetry and short stories have been published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Ayaskala, The Bangalore Review, Calliope on the Web, The Cape Rock, Tuck Magazine, Junto Magazine, Meniscus Literary Journal, Blood and Thunder, Poets’ Choice, and Dream Noir, among others. His first novel, Errors of Omission, is due out in fall of 2020 from Adelaide Books. He lives in Napa, CA, where he practices psychiatry. 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Rachel Singel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville. Rachel grew up on a small farm in Charlottesville, Virginia. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 2009 and a Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Iowa in 2013. Rachel has participated in residencies at the Penland School of Crafts, the Venice Printmaking Studio, Internazionale di Grafica Venezia, Art Print Residence in Barcelona, Spain, and Wharepuke Print Studios in New Zealand. She has studied non-toxic printmaking at the Grafisk Eksperimentarium studio in Andalusia and will continue her research at Proyecto’ace, an Artist-in-Residence Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina in Summer 2021. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and represented in private, public, and museum collections.