Down the Back
Issue 19
Ethan Mathes
2026
Descend from my
Scattered psyche
The Helter Skelter
33 flights a spiny
Spiral spilling
Several cervicals
Circles of Hell
Half two-dozen
Thor, a sick,
Theoretic rhetoric
Thieved of Thoth
Thinking pythic
Thoughts for that
Day in May a
Celebration from
Lum bars heated
In the eternal
Engine, a sacral
Place wealed upon
By foolish frogs
Fortune favors the
Fine fellas faring
Flaming steel
Stocked in sturdy
Muscle marred in
Man’s soot suit
Riot for a rotted
Triangle trailing
4-in-line cupping
Concealed coccyx
Contorted but hardly
Vital vestigial vertebra,
The tail bone
Ethan Mathes is a Junior Creative Writing major with minors in English and History. He often writes fantasy and poetry, but dabbles in all genres. An avid reader, he reads fantasy and science fiction. When he’s not reading and writing, Ethan is designing games for his friends to play. Previously, Ethan wrote the script for “One Thing,” a student-produced short film on YouTube with LikeIkeFilms (now under Studio SU).