Not Sponsored by Tampax

By Sophie Bunnell

I was in plastic 

Now I am soaked and sodden

Atop fresh linens.

This is Just to Say

By Cheryl Wang

I have placed

the tampon

on that was in

the dryer

and which

you were probably

saving

for tomorrow

Forgive me

it was delicious

so sweet

and so warm.

Aftermath, Underground and Discarded

By Hunter Dodrill

Imagine, how at once we were
all connected. Those fibers of
life–

so intertwined. We double
over and turn in on ourselves,
lost in the endless maze of
beginnings and endings and–

There was once a great sea.
Crimson waves tore us apart
and we were soaked in the
blood of our own demise.
Can you see it? Mothers and
daughters, fathers and sons,
loved ones and sworn enemies;

we begin to fall apart in this
way. Soak up the memories of
the past and the lost dreams of
the future–

dissipating in the midnight
echo.

We lose it now, once more
forever again–

everything we have ever been;
sloughed off and discarded;
paint the town red; leave me a
memory; pull me closer by the
fibers still hanging.

Imagine, now, how at once we
were all connected. How all
we are now is the detritus you
have left us among to rest, the
dripping of loss, the wish for
something more–