Issue 11
poetry
“How to Make Shrewsbury Cakes”
by Marisca Pichette
“Illuminate” by Em Harriett
Mix smoke and wood together in an old museum
they called the Sheldon House before the French &
Abenaki retaliated, shoved an axe through the door.
From then on it is the Indian House, a memorial
to cyclical violence.
Beat the smoke until it’s candlelight. Stir
the wool very very fast, whisk it into butter.
Add a cup of beeswax & pretend it’s bayberry.
Mix these all together, adding hot cocoa
spoonful by pewter spoonful.
In place of an apron, a petticoat.
The touches are the most important:
pinches of nutmeg, newspaper, nostalgia.
Essence of lilac & distilled scent of manure.
A wooden spoon blends these nicely, and while
I recommend no-cake, parched corn will do,
passing the time while the bake oven warms.
Roll the dough as flat as you can into snow
slush. Any cookie cutter will make the shapes
of cornhusks, spindles, Jacob’s ladders running
along the hem. The pan must be oiled
with lanolin.
Pop those babies in for 300 years, give or take
February 29th. When they’re as blonde as your hair
once was, or as brown as it is now,
you’re finished.
*
Marisca Pichette is a queer author based in Western Massachusetts, on Pocumtuck and Abenaki land. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Magazine, Room Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Fantasy Magazine, Necessary Fiction, and Plenitude Magazine, among others. Her debut poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, is out now from Android Press. Find her on Twitter as @MariscaPichette and Instagram as @marisca_write.
Em (she/they) is a queer nonbinary photographer and writer from New England. Their work has appeared in other Reservoir Road issues as well as Camas Magazine, Audience Askew, Kelp Journal, and others. Find Em at emharriett.com.