Uncanny poetry

Uncanny Magazine Issue 41: July/August 2021
by Lynne M. Thomas (Editor),  Michael Damian Thomas (Editor)

I read the four poems in this issues: 

Hitobashira by Betsy Aoki

Sonnet for the Aglæcwif by Minal Hajratwala

After The Tower Falls, Death Gives Advice by Ali Trotta

Radioactivity by Octavia Cade

Or I tried, at least. The poem by Ali Trotta didn‘t work for me. I didn‘t get it.

Hitobashira

BY BETSY AOKI | 136 WORDS

Every year the water flows up to the banks and beyond,
reaching slick algae fingers to the sky:

I read this poem twice and didn‘t understand it. I then looked up Hitobashira and learned something new. I didn‘t know there was such a thing as human sacrifices in Japan. Now the poem makes a lot more sense…

Sonnet for the Aglæcwif

BY MINAL HAJRATWALA | 193 WORDS

Classic mum-in-law she was, Ma Grendl:

Beowulf is a story that keeps on giving! Not the first or only version that tries to shed a different light on Grendl‘s mother.

Radioactivity

BY OCTAVIA CADE | 386 WORDS

Ranunculus aquatilis and radium.
One has petals that are pale in vases and reflect moonlight
the other walks in empty spaces, and footprints glow behind it.

A poem about Marie Curie. Interesting. It makes me realize, that I apparently need poems that not just tell a story, but also teach me new things and make me look up and research details.