‘The Were’
— jayy dodd
a mouth, seeping fog
to fill the room. there are other signs,
too, that mark the arrival of a wolf in
womanskin.
Lyrik Courtney, born just before the new millennium, is an urgent young voice in the literary world. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing their work in Winter Tangerine workshops & now, they have taken on editorial roles while expanding their portfolio. ‘The Were,’ in Liminality’s tenth issue, is Courtney’s portrait of bodies trying to identify themselves. Each line is parsed out in rich brushstrokes, making an unassuming form holding a gnarling yet discreet figure of subject trying to see itself. With a rich command of language, articulated word choice & line breaks, Courtney reimagines an approach to fragments. There is a flesh present in ‘The Were’ that is impossible to not rub up against & it pushes the reader to settle into that discomfort.