Oakdale Ink

January 2026: Change/Rebirth

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

— Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Metamorphosis” By Emma Foster

a tiny crawler, striped with gold and black

and slowly inching forward tread by tread

they’re trapped on land because of wings they lack 

just stuck inside the form they wait to shed

--

cocooned in layers spun, the insect’s cloak

a warming sheath, the tiny creature lies

they’ll hang and wait upon a tree of oak

to leave their cage and soar throughout the skies

--

at last, the creature breaks away from woe

a monarch draped in orange hues and shades

take flight above the world so far below

this change, forever fixed, a new rephrase

--

a pretty sight, a ruler now revered
a winged companion, safe from all they feared

“Plates.” By Erin Post

I held a glass plate in my hands.

I could feel it, 

you could not.

I noticed it,

You could not.

As I was polishing my dish you ripped it from my clutch.

You then smeared it with blue paint and shattered it.

You took the thing I loved most and you destroyed it. 

All with a “loving touch”

Piece by piece I've cleaned and put the plate back together. 

Yet no matter how hard I try, 

it will never be the same. 

It will forever have the lines of glue.

It will forever have the marks of blue.

So when the day comes to pack up my things,

 and wave to you goodbye.  

You will look into my eyes,

 One.

 Last.

 Time. 

And you will see I have taken your ceramic plates,

The ones carefully made and glazed. 

See I have painted over them with my final goodbyes, 

Then sealed them with my rage.

You will question every moment but never take the blame.

For love is like plates 

Once broken it will never be the same.