Mei Backof

Mei Backof is an Isabel Sparks President's Award winner, currently developing a horror short story and essay collection entitled "Bitter-Milk Drunk." Her previous works have been published in magazines like Blood+Honey, manywor(l)ds, Fish Girl Collective, and the engine(idling. Find her portfolio through Substack @meibackof.

Easy read of the poem in the image above:

The poem is arranged to vaguely resemble the silhouette of a spread-eagled, headless person. The text is frequently, but irregularly, formatted with different font sizes, caps, bolding, italics, underlines, and strikethroughs. Sometimes these formatting choices are different even within the same word, such as “mucosal” only having one bolded S. After the word “unclogged,” the poem splits into two paths. The paths can be read from left to right in one continuous stanza, or vertically on their own.

BIBLICALLY-ACCURATE SENSORY OVERLOAD

the air OOOOOOOOOZES thick, mucosal m e m b r a n e

an S in a whisper

supple sweating flesh

f a l l s in SHEETS

against the drums of

my ears all

too

unclogged.

I itch all OVER

I scrape I c l AW

I want I NEED

to r i p to tear

this skin my chrysalis

ALL pi e c es of you

all to shreds

all away