Beetle Crown by Marisca Pichette

October 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine

their armor lovely

greens & violets truer than blooms

I wither & watch.

carapace crown,

chitin coronet

banded in broken bodies

they smell of honeysuckle

& decay.

balance the stars on my fingertips,

embrace midnight & brine —

turn your eyes on the horizon

& see me rise

— beetle first —

my iridescent silhouette

reclaiming all that once

(no longer)

flew.

Originally published in the October 2023 issue of Utopia Science Fiction Magazine.

Marisca Pichette’s work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Magazine, Vastarien, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, PseudoPod, and PodCastle, among others. She is the winner of the 2022 F(r)iction Spring Literary Contest and has been nominated for the Pushcart and Dwarf Stars Awards. Her speculative poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, is out now from Android Press.