CW: suicide
The radium girls painted poison on their teeth,
Perfectly,
to glow in the dark like angels.
Killing themselves.
And I wonder if the cemetery lights up when they enter a room
and I hope that it does,
because that was all they wanted.
Just to be loved.
For fifteen cents a watch face you can kill yourself too.
The going rate is only $8.25.
—
A writer in the Illinois Valley, Anna Kaye-Rogers has been previously published in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Her favorite pieces have found homes with The Stirling Spoon, HCE Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Shift: A Journal of Literary Oddities, and The Nasiona. She can be found sitting awkwardly on floors avoiding writing anywhere animals are found.
Photography by: Morgan Petroski
