The Medley

is a twice-a-year literary journal run by the students of Hansraj College, University of Delhi. It is a repository of stories, poems and essays sent to us from around the world since 2018.

Easy Prey

Narcissi and snowdrops flaunt their primal sexual purpose. You urge me to photograph them before tomorrow’s storm crushes their elaborate little blossoms.

I’m more concerned that the snow will crush me, crush my spirit in a vast, slow-moving gloom, crush my body under hemlocks collapsed by the wet sticky weight.

You ignore my unmanly fear and feed the cats their breakfast without considering how small I’ve become with age, easy prey. Still, if we survive this week

together we might smile away the exhausted tropes of winter and replace them with April thoughts that despite their crude aesthetic will warm us together again.

William Doreski

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has taught at several colleges and universities. His most recent book of poetry is Venus, Jupiter (2023). His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in various journals.