Words:
- Stunted
- Overflowing
- Blobfish
- Samovar
- Shocking
- Nose
Spontaneous Generation
Behold my magic kitchenette!
It’s fructous, salty, fecund, wet:
a mug that grows live eels; a glass
writhing with cichlids, perch, and wrasse;
a chubby-belly china dish
that breeds blue-blubber jellyfish.
This ichthy ichor overflows,
so shocking to the eye and nose
its fragrance overwhelms the sea,
outweirds it in abundancy.
The blobfish boil over, far
beyond the bounds of samovar
and saucer! Stuffed with stunted sculpin,
the building bulges… brims… bursts open!
Mild-mannered philosophy professor by day, poet by night,
Ray Briggs teaches at Stanford University, where they also host the syndicated radio show Philosophy Talk. They are the author of the poetry collections Common Sexual Fantasies, Ruined (Cordite Press, 2016) and Free Logic (University of Queensland Press, 2013), as well as the co-author of the zine Modern American Gods, Volumes One and Two (2018, with Anna Zusman) philosophy monograph What Even Is Gender (Routledge, 2023, with B. R. George).
Anna Zusman immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union when she was twelve. She currently teaches drawing and illustration at Southern Arkansas University. In her artwork she questions stereotypes and conventions. Anna regularly participates in zine festivals and exhibits her art around the US. She is a creator of many art books and zines including Mermaid Heritage (2014), Men from Dating Sites: Volume 2 (2019) and Modern American Gods Volumes I and II (with Ray Briggs, 2018).
http://www.annazusman.com/
