Two Comics: My Mind is a Panopticon, My Mother My Guard and It's 2:39 Morning Time

This comic contains six panels that visualize anxiety with floating eyeballs and a prison tower. It reads, I think she's in there. I feel her eyes upon me. I see her eyes (repeated 3 times). Mother, please turn away. I see you in every glimpse of me.
This comic contains four panels that visualize a microcosm of a nesting bird within the smoke of burning sage.

  • Title: My Mind is a Panopticon, My Mother My Guard by Kayla Reese

    Panel 1: Title card reads, "My Mind is a Panopticon, My Mother My Guard" in a thin, capitalized font. The panel shows a close-up of a guard tower in the middle of a circular prison, drawn in black and white.

    Panel 2: Caption reads, "I lay on a revolving bed, looking through some bars." Gray bars line the panel from top to bottom. A hilly, black silhouette rests at the bottom of the panel.

    Panel 3: Caption reads, "I think she's in there. I feel her eyes upon me." Two large, cartoony eyes stare at the reader. They break the borders of the panel on both sides. Behind the floating eyes is the guard tower from Panel 1.

    Panel 4: A floating text caption in the center of the panel reads, "I see/Her eyes/I see/Her eyes/I see/Her eyes."

    Panel 5: A floating text caption in the center of the panel reads, "Mother,/Please,/Turn away." The font decreases in size with each line from top to bottom.

    Panel 6: A floating text caption in the center of the panel reads, "I see/You/In every/Glimpse/Of me." The panel is dotted with many floating, disembodied eyes.

    Title: It's 2:39 Morning Time by Kayla Reese

    Panel 1: Title card reads, "It's 2:39 Morning Time by Kayla Reese" in a thin, shaky font. The time 2:39 is stylized like the numbers of a digital clock.

    Panel 2: Drawn in black and white, the silhouette of dark sage with a glowing orb at its tip rests at the bottom of the panel. The orb speaks, saying, "I'm burning sundance sage under the flood light." The speech bubble is drawn with wispy, ghostly lines.

    Panel 3: A desk lamp is revealed at the top of the panel. It sends a shaft of light across the panel from the top-left to bottom-right corner, resembling a cartoon flying saucer. The shaft of light extends into a speech bubble that reads, "When I hear the noise of the lone bird's lullaby." The speech bubble is cut by the white branches of a leafless tree.

    Panel 4: A cartoon human figure with long hair and earrings stares up at the dark silhouette of a bird in its nest, which rests on a branch of the white tree. The human speaks, saying, "I want to ask her why does she rustle her nest at night?" in a speech bubble drawn with wispy, ghostly lines.

    Panel 5: A floating text caption reads, "I want to warn her to never reveal the place she hides." A long shot reveals the dark sage from Panel 1 lying on the ground. The glowing orb at the tip of the branch is an ember. The wispy, ghostly lines belong to a trail of smoke emanating from the ember.

    End of transcript.

This is a photo of artist Kayla Reese. She stands in front of a brick wall. She has long, brown hair and is wearing a black t-shirt.

Kayla Reese is a doctoral student who specializes in late-medieval literature at the University of Kansas. Her fiction has been published in the Crowder Quill.