The Only Way Out Is Through

Author: Katie Jean Shinkle

Publisher: Yesyes Books (2026)

"But where would you keep her, / with all those huge strange thoughts in you / going and coming and sometimes staying the night? I say, fuck the bees, kill them all. What I mean is I am afraid. Bees, for me, are the only frightening insect, their flight and sound so painful. I use the word painful so often because language escapes me and I cannot find it. When I try to enter and re-enter it retreats, so fickle. Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angelic / orders? I want to run far away when I hear wing movement, thorax muscles, an alarm of buzz. I am leaned up against the kitchen sink wiping my hands with a dishtowel and I say, god I hate bees so much. You immediately anger." - excerpt