an on-line poetry magazine
for the 21st century
Winter 2025-2026
Deborah Hauser
A SUFFICIENTLY COMPACT MASS CAN DEFORM SPACETIME TO FORM A BLACK HOLE
The world adores miniatures:
infants, kittens, fledglings—
still damp with amniotic fluid.
Women master the arts of silence and origami,
we whittle ourselves into unnatural shapes
claiming as little space as possible.
Our hearts compress with rage,
we absorb a universe of pain,
and hold up half the sky.
Deborah Hauser is the author of Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders. Her poems and book reviews have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Women’s Review of Books, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, and Bellevue Literary Review. She leads a double life on Long Island where she works in the insurance industry.
