Semi-Precious

The doll traveled steerage

in great-grandmother’s

satchel, lovingly knit beaded net

for her hair, headscarf

shielding. The painted

pucker, winged eye

a butterfly. Few Hungarian

words remain. Goulash and paprikash

its red staining our pot

the onions with skins on for color

and flavor. The doll reproves, haughty

half-smirking: she knows

I have lost the thread.

Tiffany Elliott’s Bones Awaiting the Blaze was awarded the 2022 Hillary Gravendyk Prize, and her work has appeared in Typehouse, Spectrum, and other journals. She is an asexual, neuroatypical, and disabled woman and mental health professional who received her MFA from New Mexico State University, where she was awarded the Mercedes De Los Jacob’s Thesis Prize. Her works explore the mythologies we experience, those we create for ourselves, issues of abuse and trauma, and how people can remake themselves.