Writer’s Spotlight: Mollie McMullan

Mollie McMullan is a sophomore. She receives inspiration from poets like Warsan Shire, Olivia Gatwood, and Richard Siken, and often writes with a feminist lens. When she’s not in class, she can often be found visiting the turtle in the ISC Greenhouse.

We Are Always Hungry

Born cold and blue

Upside down and selfish

My birth cut my mother in half,

brutalized the body she built

My existence has taken things from my mother

Men have taken things from me

The deed to the body I inhabit does not have my signature

A man once told me my voice belongs in Pandora’s box

I gave him my teeth to keep

I am a taker

I get that from my father

Born from two relics of the Great Depression,

he was bred to bite and maybe so was I

We are two stray dogs hoarding scraps

Try and take this morsel out of my jaws

I dare you

When we sleep side by side,

do I keep you warm?

I am no one’s favorite flower

I don’t have a scent

I look domestication in the eyes and shudder

A part of me wants to be soft

To tell you to show your petals

To tell you I want to see you bloom

But I am a sister to Medusa

I will turn you to stone