Sneak Peek; Volume 19

In the Sneak Peek series we are talking about and highlighting some great works that will be presented in volume 19. Each editor chose a piece they were excited to share with others, so keep an eye out for them in the journal.


By Dakota Lopes

Title: Are You My Mother?

Author: Kaleigh Rollins

“Are You My Mother?” by Kaleigh Rollins Poetry is its most impactful when it finds words for a feeling you might not have known that you had. The personal particulars of the author’s own life bled onto a page are to be applied as universal to the readers’ experiences, abstracted, and related to our own particulars. The world is a lonely place, and we spend much of our lives trying to make ourselves feel less alien in a world that doesn’t accept us. I find that so eloquently put to page in the poem “Are You My Mother?” by Kaleigh Rollins.

For many of us, a mother is a synonym for unconditional love, something or someone that makes you feel at home on this alien planet of ours. Some of us don’t find that in our own mother, or maybe we used to. So here we are, baby Rhesus monkeys, thrust into a life-sized Harry Harlow experiment. Rollins chronicles her particulars, while she looks for mothers: cigarette smokers, lovers, others’ mothers. And though we may not recount experiences that match these exactly, we can find our own examples of charitable drunks, coworkers, and cousins, who loved us when we felt alone.

The end of this poem ripped my heart out, it made me come to terms with an indomitable truth, the person that we can depend on to always be a mother to us, is ourselves. We have the power within us to make ourselves feel at home in our own mind, and it is only then that we can complete the search that we spend much of our life undertaking. Check out “Are You My Mother?” by Kaleigh Rollins in this year’s edition of The Bridge.

Sneak Peek; Volume 19

In the Sneak Peek series we are talking about and highlighting some great works that will be presented in volume 19. Each editor chose a piece they were excited to share with others, so keep an eye out for them in the journal.


By Stephanie Pizzella

Title: “Land Siren”

Author: Olivia White

The poem, “Land Siren”, by Olivia White captivated me. I was enchanted by the mythical elements and elegant diction that encompassed this poem. In writing, I admire when you can truly visualize every line and phrase coming to life. You get a taste of this feeling when you read this poem. The graceful and sophisticated diction in “Land Siren” really stood out to me. The way the author describes the land siren— with phrases like “The ebony silk that swirled amongst her pale legs/ Was entranced by the haunting breeze that clung in the air”— was impressive (lines 4-5). The way the author described a simple action in such an alluring way is what makes this poem so imaginative and compelling. I enjoyed the aspect of mystery in this poem. We don’t know how the speaker ended up where they are, but that is what makes it interesting. We are left on the brink of a mystery. I noticed how the speaker does not explicitly state if the land siren they are referring to is an actual mythical siren, or a woman who the author is comparing this mystical being to. I admire how the author does not directly tell us, so we have to create our own conclusions. I personally believe the author is talking about a real land siren, which intertwines the affinity for mythology that many of us have. The breakup of the lines and the way White spaced out the phrases really added more emotion to many aspects of this poem. For example, the separation of the lines “As she swayed/ Towards me/ With a sneer of daylight fangs/ On an eternal midnight” added so much more intensity and passion to the poem, compared to if this sentence was all one line (lines 19-22). This story is haunting yet addicting. White’s carefully crafted words and intriguing mythical setting leads this poem to be incredibly magnetic

Sneak Peek; Volume 19

In the Sneak Peek series we are talking about and highlighting some great works that will be presented in volume 19. Each editor chose a piece they were excited to share with others, so keep an eye out for them in the journal.


By Grace Guindon

Title: Tales of a Traveling Thief

Author: Alexis Tavares

What really grabs my attention when reading any type of work is actually the title. I think the title is very important because it is the first taste of what is to come and if done right can further entice and interest the reader. In Alexis Tavares’s “Tales of a Traveling Thief” I was instantly curious about this title and work as a whole. It got me thinking just what will this be about? What is so creative about this piece is that it is divide into two sections. The first consists of things the narrator has already stolen on her journeys, while the second section details all the things the narrator wishes to steal. While not provocative in the intended sense, I believe that this poem looks deeply at life and its unforgiving quickness which makes us want to latch onto every small spark of real joy we can get. Both sections, while different, explore and reveal the narrator’s feeling and reasoning. The first section is light and fun. It almost dances its way through the paragraphs, painting a picture of what the narrator sees. The way it is portrayed and its beauty, makes the reader want to be apart of it too. This is where we see the narrator’s perspective on life saying that “when we’re all in the grocery store, I think that everyone inside is sharing an experience with me.” We can see what the narrator values and what they take note of while passing through life. The second section contains a greater bitterness and critique about the world, it talks about how others try and dictate the narrators’ thoughts and action. It shows the way people possibly perceive us, ways that are not very flattering, ways that are even dehumanizing. In a nice juxtaposition from the first section, we can see the two realities of life: the good and the bad, or really the whole spectrum in-between.