We worship the names we bless with our tears and lips, prioritizing mouths rather than words and eyes rather than perceptions. We lay down the names we chant in the journals and books only we turn. We treat them like our herb gardens, watering them with our rain and sun so that they may thrive in our dirt. Yet some slip away, and all we can feel are the ghosts of their syllables on the tips of our tongues. Those are the names we have to let go to scrawl on our walls, the names yet to come.

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Samantha Szumloz is a fourth-year Rowan University student gaining a Bachelor’s in Writing Arts, a minor in Creative Writing, a concentration in Publishing and Writing for the Public, and a CUGS in Technical Writing. Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction has been published in places such as MORIA, Blue Marble Review, DisLit Youth Literary Magazine, R U Joking?, Halftone, and Singularity Press. She is also a June 2025 contributor to Blood+Honey and a July 2025 contributor to Viridine Literary. Other than writing, she runs her own literary and arts magazine called Art-emis. To get in touch with Samantha, her Instagram is @poemsbysammsy. You may also find her on Chill Subs.