handmade

i made a bird for you

hand crafted

out of clay

to hold my greatest fears

you had always treated them

like feathers

fragile and precious

passed down by

those things you

protected me from

when i was so very young

ceramic and cracked

you pieced them together

with

glue

and

tape

you knew would peel

as soon as

my heart got so cold

you picked me up

porcelain

and practiced

knowing it was all

so very conditional

now i know

what it is to have

unconditional

i was fine china

until i was too sharp

to hold

complicated

and queer

so odd

you pretended

not to know me

the last time we met

so i built you a bird

left the mermaid

on my bathroom wall

put a period on the sentence

i’d let be a question mark

for so

very long

Underland Updates
✒️ 🎤 👑 📜 🐔 🏰 😼 🤖
Face in the dark
AI face

The Underland Review

We are seeking:

  • → Poetry that twitches
  • → Microfiction that self-destructs
  • → Essays with fangs
  • → Visual art that shouldn’t exist
  • → Redacted files, haunted code, cursed diagrams, scanned receipts from imaginary revolutions

We do not care about your CV.
We do not require polished bios.
Previously published works? Sure.
We do not pay (yet — sorry, capitalism).
But we do offer love, weirdness, and a spotlight.

✴ Featured contributors will receive:

  • A digital copy of the zine
  • Features on our site and socials
  • An invite to our glitch-lit open mic (date tba)
  • The deep satisfaction of being canon in a lie

Deadline: August 10th, 2025
Format: PDF or Word for text. JPG/PNG for art. Max 1 piece per person.
Email: riverandceliainunderland@gmail.com
Subject line: This submission is a lie – [Your Name]

We don’t tolerate bigotry, AI slush, or boring work.

Discover more from River and Celia Underland

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Comment