“Elicit” was originally published in Forklift, Ohio. I am the stretch of easementbeneath a stretcher beneathyour broken body, your weight,and I hate that the last hand you feltwas gloved in blue latex, attached to a man who detached himselffrom the boy who lay bleedingbefore him. I am the minivanand the pilot, frame and feet, I…
Tag: Poem
Belasis and Hastur
It is the first cold night of Autumnand I smoke a cigarette to myselflooking up to the sky;you can’t see many stars from the citybut you can see Belasis and Hastur, the new constellations. When they first appeared two weeks ago,no one knew what to dobut crane their necks upward to see,everyone asking the same…
Trophy Room, Burnby Hall
A warthog twitched its narrow jaws and blinked alive; a hunting dog peeled its black lips. Our ancestors were speaking through them. One asked why a girl had turned her granddad’s photo to the wall. Another begged his son (too late) run home, unplug the generator chugging inside the living room, waking the neighbours. A…
Nebula Girl Is Born
I light a firealthough it is no longer cold.I don’t even empty the gratebut push the ash aside, so the fire can breathe.I make a nest for anthracitewith twigs I have been dryingand, as the fire takes, I hear something – so I look. It’s getting hot and I can’t quite see– so, hand on…
He Asks Me to Call Him
daddyand I think what theactual fuck I am olderthan himand the hills so I straddle his lapto have words face onabout howhe might like to finda little girl about howI ama real womanand he whisperssay it so I hear myself say itwearilyand he whispersyou can do better than thatprincess with a hiss on the esswhich…
Bad Behaviour
It starts before your company holiday party, our first fancyinvitation on the fridge. You come in,with a thirty and a few snowflakeson your shoulder. I’m clappingunder my chin, in the kitchenby the ironing board. You kickthe door shut then twirlme to the counter where we crack beers, the iron hissing through teeth behind us then…
The Big One
On the fourth floor of the humanities buildingin the redwood and eucalyptus forestof my university, the ground rolls uplike a steadily building Pacific wave –one of those pounding Ocean Beach in earshot of this classroom. Levelor blinds slash like daggers across the windows.Those of us raised here dive for deskstoo small for book bags.Twelve on…
Failure Day
The One Percent’s more gung-ho bitchesbitch that their taxes go towardsthis holiday. None do. It’s private,mid-spring when the crops burn. Pink slips tend to appear around that date;roaches swarm, and jellyfish. Spouses leave, and the one left waits for talk-show hosts’ routines about the day.At their desks, despite stern memos,the employed for a moment contemplatewithout…
Déflorer
If you touch me once more,I will scream, mister.You know it’s not right. Hush. Your hand travels crisp sheets of my camp bed,finds my girly heart.Then down, pulls asidethe elastic and finds another heartbeneath a barely grown garden. Your hand rests there,as if exhausted by the journey. I open my legs to fitall of your…
The Time the Light Went Out
How did the Dark Age come? The power wound down. There’d been some temporary rationings but this time they’d been warned it was for good. Cookers lay barren, central heating stalled and kettles lacked the will to mash the tea; no candles left to burn, light chased the sun. Lids flipped, big-time; weird portents, false…