Lauren Rose
Sea Kiss
wind raw as a newborn’s wet cry pierces my skin, an icy breath that pools between my vertebrae, slinks into my cells, wakes the ghosts within my bones—ghosts who throb in my hot blood to the crack of sea dancing against black stone, tearing hunks of mineral-flesh, splintering both rock and sea and sky, sky grey with grit, grey with grief, grey with glee so I turn, I turn, turning from the beauty too fierce too real too bare and there’s a crash, a crash of the sea crying my name don’t go, don’t leave, you belong here, here with me, slamming against the bloody cliffs, here with me, roaring towards the sky in a wall of spray, here with me; and brushes her salty lips, against mine.
Planet Sculptor
drink the water, now
drink the oasis
the birth of all life here, now.
let it slide murky through your organs
let your stomach acid shred it,
let it scrape against the soft lining of your gut.
this wild, this raw, this painters brush water
carved her way
across stone,
shaping,
sculpting,
smoothing the surface of the planet
polishing rock clay sand
thousands of years before you
and certainly thousands after.
drink the water now
drink the gift
the creator of all life here, now.
it will shape
paint
sculpt
you from inside
too.
drink the oasis
the birth of all life here, now.
let it slide murky through your organs
let your stomach acid shred it,
let it scrape against the soft lining of your gut.
this wild, this raw, this painters brush water
carved her way
across stone,
shaping,
sculpting,
smoothing the surface of the planet
polishing rock clay sand
thousands of years before you
and certainly thousands after.
drink the water now
drink the gift
the creator of all life here, now.
it will shape
paint
sculpt
you from inside
too.
The True Alive
dig my fingers into the chalky flakes
deep under the crust
scrape clay under my nails
startle a sleepy scorpion
send him wandering into the heat.
deep under the crust
scrape clay under my nails
startle a sleepy scorpion
send him wandering into the heat.
fingers inside mouth
chew the mineral paste
so thick with elements I can taste numbers
crunching between my molars
cracking in their cavities.
chew the mineral paste
so thick with elements I can taste numbers
crunching between my molars
cracking in their cavities.
boo! I scream
pebbles falling from my full mouth,
at matte scales, a dusty rattle
stretched long, blood against air
slow blink of a clear, sharp eye
pebbles falling from my full mouth,
at matte scales, a dusty rattle
stretched long, blood against air
slow blink of a clear, sharp eye
my domestic throat swelling
I fight
my own tameness
lash my tongue for her
addiction to luxury
to sugar, to salt, to butter,
fight,
yank the shirt from my
uncooked belly
force the swallow.
I fight
my own tameness
lash my tongue for her
addiction to luxury
to sugar, to salt, to butter,
fight,
yank the shirt from my
uncooked belly
force the swallow.
I tip my head
tip it to the searing,
watchful sun,
peeking at me with one
half-lidded eye
tip it to the slumbering moon
glowing with sleep,
and swallow.
tip it to the searing,
watchful sun,
peeking at me with one
half-lidded eye
tip it to the slumbering moon
glowing with sleep,
and swallow.
the wind of a coyote howl
screams into my throat
whistles through the flesh
of my empty lungs—
knees, weak, tremble,
from a surge of charged,
naked,
ferocious,
wild.
screams into my throat
whistles through the flesh
of my empty lungs—
knees, weak, tremble,
from a surge of charged,
naked,
ferocious,
wild.
slide to the earth
suddenly cooler than ever before
and then
in this moment
with this breath,
release my domestication.
suddenly cooler than ever before
and then
in this moment
with this breath,
release my domestication.
feel the desert
in my gut
in my belly
my breath
let her catch me
in my gut
in my belly
my breath
let her catch me
in the empty chambers of my heart
feel the first,
wet convulse—
of The True Alive,
waking, within.
feel the first,
wet convulse—
of The True Alive,
waking, within.
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