Enter the Hyperreal
2024
Mahaila Smith
Mahaila Smith (any pronouns) is one of the co-editors for The Sprawl Mag (thesprawlmag.ca). Their recent chapbooks include, Water-Kin (2024) and Enter the Hyperreal (2024). Seed Beetle is forthcoming with Stelliform Press in spring 2025.
Ottawa, Canada
Chapbooks
Selected work (47 publications)
How would you like to be perceived?How would you like to be drawn?
The body artist asks. She sits under
a shower of mist.
Her blue-green scaled body
catches sunlight from the watery window.
There are sketches of beings on the walls
and her tables.
speculative
poetry
The Mindworm is SpreadingThe sun tries to touch the soil, burning through tarmac
and asphalt to reach cold earth underneath.
The roads crack and sink.
Sparrow wings sit discarded in ditches.
I do not need to consume continually,
it is more a craving turned habit.
speculative
poetry
Put on your shoes or else you need to leaveStilted bones for your birthday
are an expected guest
present in the evening decanter
poured between me,
the mist and my sister.
Sparrows are my confidantes.
Butterflies are my enemies.
My sister is alright,
she isn’t a butterfly.
absurd
poetry
surrealism
abstract
FabBooth
flash
speculative