Seven of Pentacles “But release me from my bands with the help of your good hands: gentle breath of yours my sails must fill or else my project fails which was to please.” I take my face in my own hands and stare right into it: the jawline sharper, the hairline lower, the forehead not yet creased by the hard years from which I’ve only now emerged and which I did not know I’d set in motion and say, firmly, “A fallow field is not a failure,” but I do not hear me, poor thing; I am not in the habit of hearing anything but the too-long pauses after I say I love him before I hear it back. I pleased and I pleased and I pleased and I still watched the project fail—no, fallow—the project fallowed, the field dry and cracked for the season, but I am free of its burden for good.
Jacob Budenz is a queer writer, multi-disciplinary performer, educator and witch with an MFA from University of New Orleans and a BA from Johns Hopkins University. The author of PASTEL WITCHERIES (Seven Kitchens Press 2018), Budenz has fiction and poetry in Slipstream Press, Wizards in Space, Entropy Magazine, Pussy Magic, and more, as well as anthologies by Mason Jar Press, Lycan Valley Press, and Mad Scientist Journals. You can follow Jake’s work on Instagram (@dreambabyjake), Twitter (@jakebeearts), or the internet beyond (www.jakebeearts.com).
Amethyst Review 