Thursday, November 19, 2020

 ancestral wasteland

to name is to     in some sense
own     how strange then

you named me

without knowing     who i am
down to bones     tonight

i will set fire

to the dank leather cuffs     it’s time
you called me by     what

i really am

that molecule of sweat     freed
from the shame     your mother’s mother

forced into you

that hymn     caught in your throat
by the silence     your father’s father

impelled into you

i am an ocean     you’ll never taste
or a wildflower     you’ll never smell

i

am

free

*Published by Fever Dream on 11/18/20