Essay

This place where the skyscrapers grow scales, born from borrowed light bouncing off the tall, spindly walls.

May 4 • Shannon Ratliff

It was April and it was always about to be something else.

Apr 16 • Shannon Ratliff

You are here to generate joy like an engine.

Feb 20 • Shannon Ratliff

Scan is to skim or examine closely.

Feb 4 • Shannon Ratliff

We used to think life could be coaxed if you assembled the right materials and watched closely enough.

Jan 29 • Shannon Ratliff

The Creature of the Face

The world embeds its signals, no matter the species.

Dec 10, 2025 • Shannon Ratliff

The serpent doesn’t circle you. It circles all of it.

Dec 3, 2025 • Shannon Ratliff

It felt good to be dizzy with purpose...

Oct 29, 2025 • Shannon Ratliff

Teeth sharpen in the dank, split open the bone.

Oct 22, 2025 • Shannon Ratliff

The Fiction of Light

The rooster’s body requires the fiction of light.

Sep 24, 2025 • Shannon Ratliff

Even By Just Trying

My drool crusted around the edges. The collapse. The quiet in the gape.

Sep 4, 2025 • Shannon Ratliff

Glass Cities on My Skin

Every day I wake into someone else, stitched from scraps I don’t remember choosing.

Aug 27, 2025 • Shannon Ratliff

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