Sophie Panzer
In the 14th century, plague came
for the Sedlec silver mines, left the earth
bursting with bodies instead
of ore, sowed a gruesome
harvest, and now clacking
trains carry us to femur-stacked
chambers, coats
of arms composed of
clavicles, thief bone
connected to judge bone,
husbands lying with other
husbands, wives with wives, watched
by angels perched atop
towers of their vertebrae.
***
Sophie Panzer is the author of the chapbooks Survive July (Red Bird Chapbooks 2019) and Mothers of the Apocalypse (Ethel Press 2019). She has edited prose for Inklette and Scrivener Creative Review. Her recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Anti-Heroin Chic, Josephine Quarterly, Lavender Review, Gingerbread House, and Pulp Literature. She lives in Prague, Czech Republic.