Illyana Rasputin Teaches Me Creation Magic

By Latonya Pennington

Illyana tells me she forged
her Soulsword from boiling hellfire
butterflies of childhood
and jagged shards of trauma.

She says I can too
but I tell her I can’t.

My trauma
left me with
broken glass
and scorching lava.

My childhood
was cloudy with
a high chance
for thunderstorms.

Yet a blank page let me
write shadows as fairy tales.

IIIyana says
a pen can be
as mighty
as a sword.

A dark chapter is only
one part of a story.

I smile
and
my magic
glitters.

A flaming, golden pen emerges
I write and rise like dawn.

Latonya Pennington is a poet and freelance pop culture critic from Troy, AL. Their poetry has been featured in The Bitchin Kitsch, The Daily Drunk, and Into The Spine among others. When they aren’t reading, playing video games, or streaming shows and movies, they write articles and poems. You can find them on Twitter @TonyaWithAPen.