ishango

home built around hearth. body
full of brutal architecture? built
around incessant tides pulling blood tallies
across bone calendars.

i baked bread yesterday,
measured flour, yeast, saltwater heat. left to fill
skeletal imprints of my hands
i did not eat.

kept the sea out of myself. virgin
goddesses knew the months
better than i. knew calculus
of mirrored x body. counted brackish veins.

vesta and selene. sexless violence
inscribed, inverted,
what lunacy? i baked bread again today
let scores burn to cinder.

shoulderblade moon. scorched hearth.
turned my skin inside out.
swept up the ash. kept
myself housed in unfamiliar oceans.

 

0

You might also like…

Poetry
Poetry

Rainbows

Erica Johnson

Light peeks through the stain glass window in front of our small crawl-space attic, creating rainbows on the walls in our living room. I stand at the front door overlooking the sunlit street that ... [+]

Poetry

The Penny

Lori Khadse

Once upon a time,
in a leather wallet a little torn,
lived a small, small penny,
his spirit just born.

All his life, he watched money come and go,
bills and coins, smooth paper checks ... [+]