december is a color wheel

and every spoke is a

shade of violent

wearing a velvet dress

​

strange that she’d wear

such a lush fabric

when it would so greedily

absorb the blood

spilled by her willing hand

​

strange that she was

dressed so vibrantly

yet those who had seen her

swear that she was

wearing gray

Ophelia Monet (she/her) is a 2025 Best of the Net nominated poet, high school teacher, storm chaser, and mother. She lives in the suburbs of Cincinnati with her husband and their son. She is the editor-in-chief of wildscape literary journal. Her work appears or is forthcoming in HOBART, Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine, Ink and Marrow Lit, Loud Coffee Press, Heimat Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal, The Inflectionist Review, and more.