Picked Wuthering Heights as my Plane Watch and Now
by Ariadna (Arina) Maksin, United States
42,000 feet above any feeling
ground, elordi loams through
the window like a monsoon.
he turns his lover to a dog.
i understand: i’d let anyone near me
if they were covered in rain.
again and again, i call myself a bitch.
in whose arms did it start?
i only understand myself soaked.
when i picture my heart as a cliff,
it is green with moss, great and open-
mouthed for small life. i let
my bones be rain-beaten.
to want you, i must soak
your hands with my blood.
when i say don’t follow,
i mean run. yes, there is a sentence
at the end of all this. you want me
like a fish on a hook.
yes, i’ll run
at you,
through you.
like the two ends
of a waterfall.
Wuthering Heights, directed by Emerald Fennell, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2026
Ariadna (Arina) Maksin is a poet, neurobiology researcher, and the founding editor of Stemlit Review. Awarded first runner-up in Palette Poetry’s 2025-26 Rejected Poetry Prize judged by Mai Der Vang, Arina’s work can be found in Palette Poetry, Scapegoat Review, and Eunoia Review, among others. She is an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. She splits her life between the West and East Coast, and her time dissecting either diction or brains.