mercurial

I am forever building empires out of girls too hungry to notice, myself half-starved to fit the softened shadow.

(this way I can be hunter and prey, emaciate and partially consumed, red as the mouth that outcasts)

It is not spring and flowers do not blossom from concrete half as well as my mouth blossoms red on the paleness of my arm, the grey wall of the girls bathroom cracks and blisters in the smothering heat of girlhood, a slip of mastick, a slip of lipstick, and her name on the tile like a piece of scripture. In a curve of a letter and heart-shaped full stop, a wallflower makes for a thoroughly modern crucifixion

Seam unfurls in red and blue, like veins could pull apart the body as simply as words could, an unravelling, and I unmake in the middle of breakfast, uncouth, unafraid

Running my tongue along the point of my teeth I see in hers but naked reflection, I am not full, but I am fuller

I am always building geminis out of hands clasping antique knives

this way I can be both flesh and the throat that swallows

Andy Kehoe