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Photography by François Bereaud

“I walk this path regularly with a friend, beauty everywhere.”
François Bereaud is a husband, dad, full-time math professor, mentor in the San Diego Congolese refugee community, and mediocre hockey player. He writes, edits, and sometimes publishes. In September, Cowboy Jamboree Press will publish his first full manuscript, San Diego Stories.
Twitter/X:  @FBereaud
francoisbereaud.com

Celestial Engineering
Poetry by Alicia Cara
CW: Mental Health


I remember the shipwreck, the breaking of the dam
The cascade of the water, the wooden shards

Excavating my bones among the wreckage, tracing old scars
Reopening old wounds by pulling their threads apart

Sifting through the debris, littering the shoreline
Adding to what I left behind the last time

Trying to free myself of the tangled, twisted net of this grudge
Am I right to feel pain, is my anger deserved?
I keep trying to cast it off, but it’s still hard to trust

Only in an infinite space can I breathe
Only when I’m solitary in nature, can I fall to my knees
As the sobs tear themselves out of me

Give me the moon on the water, the stars on a hill
A cliff I could fly from, but I never will

Give me silence, so my eyes can hear themselves scream
Rocks, the waves can spill over, to coat the sand in the sea
Stone I can feel under my hand, just to feel something

Looking for comfort in the warm embrace of the air
Wiping away the signs of my pain, with their gentle fingers

I know the taste of salt, better than any other
And whether finding relief at the edge of the sea
Or a current swallowing me, pulling me under
It always comes back to water
Alicia Cara is a poet from Scotland whose work has been published in a handful of journals, including Orange Blush Zine and Green Ink Poetry. 
Her work can also be found at: www.aliciacaracreates.com