Bailey Merlin

Dec 1, 2022
1 min

Poem #33

Striped I fell from a dock in the summer, split my hand open like a ripened fig, blood drip-dropping to ruddy the waves while I gulped...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Nov 9, 2022
2 min

Life Update: The Big One

This year has already been so busy. Marriage. Grad School. Research Project. Promotion. And now, at last, I can put my dream on that...

1 view0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Oct 20, 2022
2 min

The Postcard; The Tiny Window

With school in full swing, creative writing has taken a back seat outside class. However, readings about illness narratives have...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Sep 9, 2022
1 min

Poem #32

Dry Socket I’m bad at being an invalid, so I keep angel teeth in my pocket and crunch them up into dust so I can commune with the dead...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Aug 4, 2022
1 min

Poem #31

Double Helix Breakdown She’s waiting for spiders to crawl from her fingernail ridges and ride into battle, feeling their history as they...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Jul 7, 2022
3 min

June Writing Challenge, pt. 2

Creative pursuits are a practice, and you have to show up for them or they won’t show up for you. Last month, I made sure to answer a...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Jun 16, 2022
3 min

June Writing Challenge

For the month of June, I’ve challenged myself to answer one prompt out of 642 Things To Write About. So far, so fine. Writing short form...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

May 15, 2022
1 min

Publication Alert

My flash fiction piece “Wellspring Wandering” was published by Bait/Switch, which is a unique journal because it is intensely...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Apr 21, 2022
7 min

Madonna & Child, Delayed

Her knee jiggles. Incessant anxious energy has made its home in her veins, moving through her as steadily as blood. Today, though, the...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Mar 3, 2022
3 min

The Least

For Paul Farmer: You lived a life full of good works. Though you now rest, your work lives. Thank you. The young man who lives above the...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Feb 4, 2022
5 min

How I Used to Play the Cello

This is an old piece I always thought of doing something with. Looking back at it now, I’m happy to let it be. It’s been such a long time...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Dec 2, 2021
1 min

Frank

In the attic there lives a ghoul. His name is Frank. He is not loud. He does not take up much space. He does not eat food. If you didn’t...

1 view0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Oct 22, 2021
2 min

Slivers

In Salem, there are a lot of doors. There are a lot of doors to be seen and a lot of doors to be seen by the right pairs of eyes. Not...

1 view0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Oct 8, 2021
2 min

Projects in Progress, pt. 1

Every year, the master’s students I work with at Harvard give a five-minute presentation on the work they’re doing out in the field. It’s...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Aug 20, 2021
2 min

Walnut Street Stories, pt. 2

Madelyn sets the crossword to the side. None of the answers are right, but she still managed to make everything fit. Making yourself...

1 view0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Aug 6, 2021
2 min

Walnut Street Stories, pt. 1

Madelyn finishes The Plain Dealer’s daily crossword puzzle in thirty minutes flat. She gets up from the kitchen table for a second cup of...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Jul 2, 2021
2 min

Poem #30

Diagnosis with the Crypt Keeper The first time I meet my psychiatrist, he asks if we’ve met before. This does not bode well. He asks...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Jun 4, 2021
9 min

Aqua Vitae

This room has four walls, but it is also without walls, expanding past the fragile steel of my skull. A fragment of me looks at rows and...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Apr 15, 2021
1 min

Poem #29

Hill of Beans The doughnut shop isn’t up to code; danger makes a delicious dish. Here, hello is flash-fried catfish. Go ahead, eat up,...

0 views0 comments

Bailey Merlin

Mar 18, 2021
1 min

Poem #28

Lesson in Lockjaw My grandfather’s jaw is locked into the smoothness of my chin, a mechanism that helps me chew the fat at Christmas,...

0 views0 comments

Blog