In my dreams, I am a jet setter.

My homebody ways melt into stardust

And I radiate pearlescence, grinning from ear to ear—the set I got from my grandfather—

I’ve grown into them

And out of the baby Yoda references.

My fat sheds into moss,

My bones are golden and my flesh fertile soil harboring harvest secrets—

Organs dripping diamonds, sparkling like the dull glimmer of my eyes outshined by dayl...

I should be outside, enjoying the sunshine on my face.

Perhaps I’d like to have a picnic in the park

Or ride rollercoasters until dark.

Then I’d watch the sunset on the pier,

Lost in the cloud’s pink hues.

Not a worry about the call queue—

Listening to folks drone and moan about how a claim raised their rates

But don’t know how lonely it is on the other side of the phone.

They think me a machin...

I have exploited this land

And depleted it of its resources.

I hear it takes the blood of a thousand worth their weight in gold.

I had no ties to the cold except I was desensitized.

I heard that no one dies.

No man’s bomb blows a baby’s bead to pieces

Amid boundary conflicts.

Media lies and says everything’s fine

But whose head is impaled by the stake,

Lined fences with the faces of traitors.

T...

I would be anything for you.

Take my body as a fluid entity able to fit in whatever crevice you wish.

If you want water,

I will quench your thirst with the tears I’ve cried.

Molded to the glass—

The perfect specimen—I will not shatter.

I will act as the Phoenix,

Nest of fire consuming my plumage—

Cas was named after an angel but has a devil in his blood.

I backed into the corner,

Accepting my fa...

Lately

I’ve been dreaming about u.

I can’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD—

I think u planted a seed for false memories.

Because so clearly

I see myself waking up next to you

And we’ve lived a thousand lives in this small infinity.

Under the covers,

You show

Me a new religion

After my deity stopped returning my calls.

I think

I could love you even in the dark—

If you don’t mind my brain glitching.

See,...

Shots fired, cup of Stars and Stripes half-empty;

Optimism was a casualty of the Civil War’s second act.

Brother turning against brother

All in the name of their leader’s cowardice.

They say if I can’t take the heat,

Get out of the kitchen.

And in the same breath,

Telling me that is the only place I belong.

Sandwiches with truth in every bite;

How does the swine taste?

Do his boots leave prints...

They warned me of the big, bad wolf lurking in the brush.

He had teeth yellow and stained with blood,

An insatiable hunger for my girlhood.

The glimmer of wonder shimmering in my eyes

Grew dull and weary of watching my back

For fear of fangs proclaiming themselves a knife,

Unzipping my flesh to unsheath my skeleton,

Spiraling, spiraling—

Squirming with my eight arachnid legs as I spin my web of ...

More clutter accumulates than a landfill gathers rubbish—

Boxes of my great-grandfather’s papers stacked to the ceiling.

He interpreted God in a way that speaks to the deepest trenches of my soul.

I’ve forgotten the sound of my conscience,

Dead air and space buzzing in my empty head—

No walls for the acoustics to bounce off of.

Shrill static, microphone feedback deafening to the point of no retu...

While chasing your ghost,

I became one myself.

Sitting by my window, knitting like a sailor’s wife,

Eyes glued to the horizon with the hope that your ship is the next to dock

But I know you washed upon Calypso’s shore

And can’t remember my name anymore.

I wandered the empty corridors of your subconscious

And saw a thousand closed doors.

I’m still haunted by you,

You injected me with your toxic ...

A madman wields an ax,

Craving the music of blade meeting bone—

Carving in the base of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,

The long-awaited resolution to the prophecy:

The madwoman that waves her quill,

Words within her that yield dark forces—

She writes what she held on her tongue,

Spitfire loose cannons,

If the slanderous chatter cannot be said with one breath—

There she blows,

Page smoki...