Wendy Torrance Refusing To Ash & two others
three new poems by RJ Equality Ingram
Wendy Torrance Refusing To Ash
Trouble wanders in looking for friends minutes after you get home & take off your shoes / Look I didn’t know what was wrong / The ingredients for happy sat on the formica table ready for me to mix them into a cake for the family / Almost had everything we thought we wanted but then that tricky little word slips in looking for a place to stretch his legs & we let more into our home / Before we know it we’re living in somebody else’s house with mealworms ruining the flour / I didn’t know what was wrong / My folks asked if the drinking stopped & I lied to them / I repeated back to my mother the lies we were raised on & said to myself I could bend the truth out of anything if its hot enough & the furnace was rumbling its fierce music / Cartoon violence poured from the TV into my own home / Could I have stopped it if we tried harder? Honestly? No one looks good saddled next to a monster so I only saw the parts of myself that I loved / We relocated to a town covered in fresh air to find new jobs watching each other burn but I could never pluck up the courage to put out the fires until too late / I didn’t know what was wrong / So I told myself they were just sparks.
Try looking for red flags in your rose tinted glasses | Turn to page 32
Relax honey the worst is behind us | Turn to page 62
How Long Have You Been
Preoccupied By Men
With Two Faces?
The Demogorgon slinks between ivory pillars as townsfolk prattle on about elections & airstrikes over cake pops & syrupy iced coffees / Ask the boys how their sex manifested itself & hunts in the streets a charming gentlemen by day but a goddamn dandy come twilight / Two Face stands behind a steel girder smoldering cigar after cigar while Scar softly purrs to himself atop his brother’ stolen throne / Hades blows into town every day or so & offers painted roses to anyone who listens to his sailing songs about butterflies & bedlam / Winnona Ryder types jimmy together entrances to the underworld out of drywall & groceries bought on lean from the lesbian owned hardware store / When lit up with Christmas lights it’s a never ending tunnel of jewels glistening after a silent rain / And when the little heroes cross Daryl’s path they’ll be offered a deal just like the rest of us / Send flowers to the parents of children who read obituaries / Towns already get strung out on sweets & snappy gossip before strangers wander in / Besides wholesome sounds exactly like how we got here / Celestial overlords keep dolls suspended by strings & dressed in top hats & monocles whose gold chains hang from the scars around our eyes / If you’re clever you can watch magic breathed back into lungs before we reemerge from the ally / Can’t you hear that? / The Prince of Demons raps his cane on the linoleum floor.
Split your offering into equal haves | Turn to page 33
Pray the demon argues with himself & forgets you | Turn to page 44
After Party
A kid in neon flip-flops stands between two trees staring at the sun rise over a craggy coastline / He holds onto a rood that stands about an apple over him & the pair of them that is the staff & kid can’t remember what candy they had for breakfast but they sure as hell never miss the sunrise / Welcome to the next level of unyielding environments / The infinite forest meets the infinite sea & between them ships pack up & ferry the country’s elite back & forth between curtains of sapphire & foam / Regardless of your plans tonight you’re sure to scan the channels for floats & buoys bobbing in & out of consciousness / The leftover selvage from yesterday’s fancier parties sinks beneath the sandy surface of the beaches where children comb around prodding each other with sticks & metal detectors & if you don’t stop I’m gonna tell mom! / Tell mom what exactly? / That it’s only been a year & you’ve already dried up? / Given into numbness from beyond Flatlandia / That the Grief you thought you were carrying around in your Betsy Johnsons & Kate Spade knock-offs ended up evaporating before the custom locket you made for her cremains even made it to the graveyard shift / Sadness is a gift & there for can be taken away unfortunately but they don’t preach that from the stone pulpits you used to trace with your pretty chipped French tips / So you have to keep flipping through the deck until you land on something that looks nice / What were you expecting? / Another after party?
Turn over another card | Turn to page 34
Turn over another card | Turn to page 36
RJ Equality Ingram lives next to a cemetery in Portland, Oregon & works as a necromancer for Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette. Their second poetry collection Peacock Lane is forthcoming from White Stag Publishing in June 2026 & their debut poetry collection The Autobiography of Nancy Drew was also published by White Stag in 2024. More work can be found in Pool Party, Quarter Press’s (ly), Luna Luna, Crab Apple Literary & Deep Overstock among others. Photographs of their cats Twyla & Senator Padme Amidala as well as their little free library can be found on Instagram @RJ_Equality
Outstanding & amazing work RJ!!