J.A. HANDVILLE is a poet and visual artist based in Syracuse, New York, and the author of The Cranium Cage (2025), among other books. J.A. Handville creates digital collages and poetry often themed around the difficulties of love, mental illness, and the human condition. J.A. Handville’s work has been published in Unvael, Into the Void, Dissonance Magazine, VAINE Magazine, Humana Obscura, Drunk Monkeys, The Closed Eye Open, and Red Noise Collective. You can find his work on Instagram at handvilles_studio.
SELF-PORTRAIT BEFORE THE WORD
I.
In every mirror, I arrived unnamed.
A boy-shaped bruise in borrowed light.
The glass looked back and was not blamed.
In every mirror, I arrived unnamed.
My face was mine, but badly framed,
a quiet error dressed in white.
In every mirror, I arrived unnamed.
A boy-shaped bruise in borrowed light.
II.
I was not ugly. I was misplaced.
A wrong key trying every door.
Some clerk of God had stamped my face.
I was not ugly. I was misplaced.
Mother said smile, and so I braced
my mouth, then locked the bathroom door.
I was not ugly. I was misplaced.
A wrong key trying every door.
III.
Before the word, the wound could read.
It read the room. It read the face.
It knew which hungers not to feed.
Before the word, the wound could read.
It knew which softness not to bleed,
which parts to hide, which laugh to place.
Before the word, the wound could read.
It read the room. It read the face.
Sushanth Shyamsundar is an Indian writer and poet based in Chennai. He writes poetry and flash fiction, across horror, comedy, queerness, asexuality, family, memory, and everyday life. He performs theatrically as Rakshasan, a persona built from tenderness, irreverence, and theatrical bite. He is the author of one poetry collection, with two more manuscripts in progress, and his recent writing explores how identity forms before it is named, how ordinary objects become emotional landmarks, and how the self keeps inventing ways to remain alive and strange. Social media: Instagram: @rak.sha.san Facebook @the.suzz
