postural

M. Shahid

let me unround my shoulders, uncurve my spine
let me bloom up and stand root down
i’ll let the sunlight follow me home
let me unlearn my tendency to curl inward
let me row my arms out and loosen ligaments
i’ll let the moonlight shine in my head &
when my bones crackle and my memories twitch
and my body doesn’t settle
i’ll curl back up, i’ll go back to myself
i’ll try flattening myself again another day
and force myself to grow like rhubarb
with just enough light to hear my growing pains
and just enough dark for me to bear it unseen

M. Shahid is an emerging young poet from California. Queer, South Asian, and disabled, they write at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. Contact them @m.aliha.shahid on Instagram, and at m.aliha.shahid1212@gmail.com

Art: Nia Hughes (she/her) is an oil painter currently pursuing her BFA in Studio Art at Oregon State University. Her practice centers on human connection, exploring how emotions and memories can serve as points of empathy; moments in life that ache with nostalgia and slip just out of reach. Working in semi-realistic portraiture, she captures these fleeting feelings through facial expressions, color, and quiet storytelling that is intimate and personal. Nia is part of the Scholar Cohort for the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts and the recipient of the Dr. Helen E. Plinkiewisch Art Scholarship for the 2024–2026 academic years. Her work was also recently featured in the Personal Mythology exhibition at the LaSells Stewart Center during Summer 2025. Nia believes art can reach the parts of ourselves we neglect or shut away, allowing us to feel seen in ways words often can’t. Through her work, she hopes to create moments of reflection, warmth, and shared understanding.