Apparition
They approached in hordes and masses,screaming in throaty, strangled jubilation.A cloud of dust in the outer rimof our vision, the edgeof our flat, bare world. Meanwhile, we pattered through the halls,looked with moonlike faces up at the drafty rafters of the roof,the airy rooms, the gray light, the seagrass aroma. The grown-ups told us to…
today i am a lady
I thought I was dead, butI was only dreaming.The red pigment stained my skinAnd I thought I had bled myself dry.But I don’t have even a little lipstick on the back of my hand when I wake,So I put some on to mark the skin andLet it smear as I go about my day. I…
Future Requiem
This world is making me bleed. Blood and tears and angry sweat, it’s all falling off me and it’s staining my clothes and cutting paths down my cheeks and no one who cares is allowed to do anything. We were told big words of freedom, of liberty and were dazzled by them until we learned…
Fourth Dimension Fairytale
at all times i am dying. after all, we could not have seen the guillotine.we could not have seen the way the road gorged itself on unvigilant passerby& the vigilantes, too. the sky seemed a stranger to me. i could not speak for you as i once had; i could notpeel back the skin of…
Sestina For Burning Bones
it all started with a dress the color of stars. baptism of the color red. two worlds burning into desire. it ended with bones. the city only breathed stardust and sword hilts before your body turned blade. you covered my four fields with hoarfrost. I never knew cruelty until the day you breathed it into…
Sequins
I remember Papa slamming the front door again and again, car engine rumbling to a start, his absence opening around me like a blade. before he left he told me he dreamed of sequin carved women littering the concrete like koi, limbs splayed glossy under the streetlights. now, while he dances in hotel rooms, Mamateaches…