Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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Spring 2014 |

Our Hearts Knitting Together, Unholy

what everyone promised us, forget it all of them liars
how a girl wakes up without voice forget posture
how to hold a fork what’s encrypted here
on the panes of leaves, in lullabies untangle it
Eve’s lesson, the only lesson Desire, barreling
now banished, take it away O God, take it
old as prayer old as prostitution, comb
the dirt of the earth, forget
your name, the taste
of your teeth, that same ivory fleet of beliefs and a so-called genesis
Melissa Barrett is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and a Tin House writer’s scholarship. Her poems can be found in Narrative, Beloit Poetry Journal, Sonora Review, ACM, and Web Conjunctions.