Death Collector

Dani ROse Fitch

My collection, as living things do,

tends toward the direction

of death. 70% alcohol bath:

a procedure to preserve the brain

of a sheep shorn short.

Skulls and specimens

line my shelves to the extent of

blotting out the yellow wallpaper

with diaphonized devilry.

My fortune is aesthetic

coated in blacklight,

green with hues reflecting

off glass, a collection to make

spongy bones of factory girls 

proud.

Knowledge is beauty

and death holds it all.

Dani Rose Fitch, originally from Peoria, Illinois, is a writer, student, and newly established writing instructor whose work dwells in the brambles between critical theory, composition pedagogies, poetry, and speculative fiction. Their current academic research explores teaching the art of voice in an age of large language models. She will be receiving her MA from EIU in May 2026 and teaching composition while pursuing a PhD in English at Northern Illinois University beginning the following fall. Dani’s creative practice is deeply rooted in the science of the natural world, technology, ethics, and the magic of posthumanism.