![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/persephone-a.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
She’s muttering to herself<\/p>\n
oh, clasp these hands together keep them steady don’t shiver all their apple seeds under this frosted courtyard she marks the days out in repressed rage lonely, lonely,\u00a0lonely<\/em>\u00a0days<\/p>\n missing her mother occasionally, too brazen and reaching up, far above her head<\/p>\n she pushes forth fields of strong, green shoots ________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n Gretchen Tessmer is a writer\/attorney based in the U.S.\/Canadian borderlands.\u00a0 She writes both short fiction and poetry, with work appearing in such venues as Nature, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, <\/em>and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, <\/em>together with previous appearances in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Andrea Alemanno\u00a0 is\u00a0a compulsive illustrator \u00a0who fills the line spacing, preferably at 300 dpi.<\/span> SHY DAISIES, by Gretchen Tessmer, with artwork by Andrea Alemanno She’s muttering to herself oh, clasp these hands together before we’re all done in\u2014 keep them steady keep them still don’t shiver even as the woods dress in winter-white all their apple seeds and maple saplings close to the chest, sleeping under this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-57-archive","category-main","category-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nbefore we’re all done in\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n
\nkeep them still<\/p>\n
\neven as the woods dress in winter-white<\/p>\n
\nand maple saplings
\nclose to the chest, sleeping<\/p>\n
\nof ice and snow
\nwhere Persephone paces, far below
\nwringing her aching hands<\/p>\n
\nand slashes made
\nwith cinder ash<\/p>\n
\nmissing the sun
\nmaking friends with the underworld cats<\/p>\n
\ntoo brash!
\nshe unclasps her hands
\nrebellious fingers fidgeting<\/p>\n
\nshy, white daisies<\/p>\n
\npiercing the permafrost
\nstraight through<\/p>\n
\nShe\u2019s\u00a0 from Italy and loves to move into a new city searching for inspiration. In every city,\u00a0 she constantly keeps drawing.\u00a0 Now, 3 decades later (and a little bit more), she is\u00a0 still drawing and learning something new everyday.\u00a0 She loves the traditional touch into a digital tools world so uses pencil, ink and digital colors to give life to her artwork.\u00a0 Sometimes she shares her knowledge with wannabe illustrators.\u00a0 Her work has been selected for several awards\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>she\u2019s currently working for Italian and international publishers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"