issue #1: musical golden shovels

shrinkage

29 April 2026

it is brave to trust promises—maybe green, but it turns out it’s even harder to admit how they fissured. i believed it

when it was love. i believed so hard that my body grew to need it, need you. i wanted something you never really wanted.

i didn’t believe you could lie to me, caching secret hopes i’d somehow become smaller.

Notes

After “Gemini Feed” by BANKS.

about the author

nat raum is a disabled artist, writer, editor, and genderless disaster based on unceded Piscataway and Susquehannock land in Baltimore. Past and upcoming publishers of their writing include Split Lip Magazine, Poetry.onl, Baltimore Beat, Poet Lore, beestung, and others. Find them online at natraum.com.