Longlist Saturdays: Autopsy of an Artist by Cypher

Autopsy of an Artist

I am a lone traveler with a bag

of metaphors. It gets bigger

with every new person

and place, but not in weight.

It never weighs more

than I can carry.

I’ve stuffed my past

into this sack. It brims

with mirror-cities, the photograph

I call mother, the mint ice cream taste

of my first love letter, and the pillow

of the palms that never held me.

As it scrapes along sandy deserts

and forest trails, the weather

slowly wears it down, heat

poking holes in the plastic sheet.

The smaller parts of me

slip

away.

But do not fret.

When winter returns,

the ice will close over the gaps

and seal the leaks shut.

With time, I will fill my bag with more

grey-haired dandelions, crunched-

up soda cans, and worn-out

wallets. Whatever I lose will be more

than made up for.

There will always be

more of myself

left to find.

Cypher’s first full-length poetry collection - The Self is an Ocean -  is was just released in July 2026 with DarkWinter Press. You can find Cypher on Instagram: @cypherspace_101 and at her website: cypherspace.ca.