Hannah V. Warren
Folk Horror
tell us stories about the sludge
the mosquitoes the harmless armadillos
& we’ll tell you about our exquisite performances
our manipulation
—& yes
our violent desires
dear apple picker we ask that you lie to us
we want sunken boats
bodies preserved in mud & heat
gold coins in their ribcages
don’t tell us about the dogs
don’t tell us about the newborns
we realize the monster is a pastoral hurricane
disruptive grifter uncanny spoiled fruit
a field torn up by industry & discretionary funds
tell us: from what orifice
should we give birth to the rise of platonic allegory
amalgam of horror & smudged historical value
we want to think anything possible
we want to think ourselves possible—
a water blister on the edge of sordid burst
Hannah V. Warren is a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia and a Fulbright scholar. Her writing and research interests center monstrous aesthetics, post/apocalypse literature, and representations of alterity. Hannah is the author of Slaughterhouse for Old Wives Tales (Sundress, Winter 2023) and two chapbooks. Her works appear in Gulf Coast, Passages North, Crazyhorse, THRUSH, Fairy Tale Review, and elsewhere.