bankruptcy
clipped wings rot
under a cheap chandelier.
elbows tunnel
table plastic.
sepia
heave weeping
he hides
wedged.
I watch. my head
between banister
bars. toes curled dirty
carpeted brown stairs.
I watch. her hand,
his shoulder. Ma
levy’s me
go. go.
go to bed. I
blur away
my loose head
ripping time
surgery
petal prayer this distance
queer closer please —
khusra you hurled —
you won’t be a man
or
a woman.
yes.
what is a shore
without the sound of silt
jetting
through discard
here.
my buzz cut used to be a black braid.
trace the back of my head. hear
queer fireworks. a symphony of unruly
ancestors. passing silhouetted men,
unanchored blood terror—
clocked. there came a night I thanked god
for reincarnation. for surviving plaited erasure
& green- neon-visibility. the
clouds we flew through. arriving at beauty
fantastical. the unsealed temple. the constellations
flashing faggy-dykey-transhood; the moon unusual came
close. silky on the windowsill. sweet sparkling queer
ease.
swallow
I was thrown into the water as a kid.
bubbles mouthing discard like scissors.
lung hymn.
reach into the reservoir.
sheared tongues squirm.
linguistic eclipse; generations of you
jolt tactile. this alphabet
mass grave, your celestial ripple.
I ghost, you mirror. flood
my foreign gaze.
pierce my entourage
of grief
***
Photograph of Jai Dulani by Margarita Corporan.
