Jacob Schepers’ excerpt from Glitch Whelps has been paired with Kunihiko Morinaga's 8-bit-inspired patchwork flower coat from his 2011-2012 ANREALAGE Autumn/Winter show titled "LOW." A "whelp" is the offspring of a carnivorous animal and a "glitch" is something that might force a user (or reader) to confront a mechanics unseen. In his poem, Schepers explores the idea of life born out of glitch, error, flaw. Or maybe another word for all of this is: noise. This poem is noisy, youthful rebellion. It is "guts splayed open." As Morinaga has said of fashion: "The real is the unreal. Things we can see, and things we can't. Things that exist, and things that don't."

​​​— Paul Cunningham, Editor


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​From Glitch Whelps




we glitch whelps
spawn and sprout
together
like there’s no
tomorrow
and of course
there isn’t
any hope
for one, that
is, unless
we buck the
system and
seize control
and deny
all progress
and fix each
line of code
to render
and leave our
guts splayed open
corroding
the whole damn
array of
mechanic
whirligigs
and obfus
cations and
blackboxings









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Jacob Schepers is the author of the poetry collections Ugly Ground Swell Moss (Carbonation Press, 2026) and A Bundle of Careful Compromises (Outriders Poetry Project, 2014). His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in antiphony, Blue Bag Press, CAPGRAS, Dialogist, Heavy Feather Review, Hobart, Indianapolis Review, MEMEZINE, Psaltery & Lyre, The Shore, and elsewhere. With Sara Judy, he co-edits ballast.

​Website and Instagram @jacobschepers.