there will be no tragedies

if i have any totem, it is her.
i am stuck in a then-time, tethering
her hand to mine. i can't get out.

i see her jeans lying on the floor,
bloodletting with her in bed and on couches.
i have been dead since she killed me;
my body remains in the crawlspace under
her childhood home, mixing saliva with rot,
confusing raccoon bones with human.

we are moving towards better times,
but it is not benevolent. she is dragging me,
but what is being dragged if not a particular way
of being held? i can't feel my fingers when
she is grabbing at my wrists,
twisting and digging into the skin.

my missing is natality now. come summer,
i will be reborn; these marks will no longer cover
my most delicate flesh, the soft parts of me.
i do not go in peace.

Ohhh dang! I love this, dissonance! I feel like even the first line has such gravity to it, and then the rest of the poem is so visceral. <3 Wow.

i have a certain useless talent:
i can write these corpses into poetry.

this ends and doesn't end, two small deaths
in quick succession. her mouth tastes like decay
when i kiss her. i carry the smell of the unburied
on me like a curse, a lifeline.

the local wildlife doesn't bother me anymore.
she says even the vultures have lost their appetite.

jade says we’re born hungry,
but i know better.

in the dark, she presses her hands to my chest,
whispers, “you have a heart, even if it’s rotten.”

i do not compare her body to raw meat. i do not
compare the man to a dog. i do not call her prey.

she kisses my face and tells me i am beautiful.
i do not feel beautiful when i am all marrow.

it's a give and take, supply and demand;
our love is like symbiosis.

Oh, to be written about with such reverence. I love how women shape the narrative of your poetry. Jade is not reduced to something simple or superficial ("i do not compare her body to raw meat") and it's so refreshing to see!!

i feel dust caking,
dry as soon as it hits the sweat on
my eyebrow. i try to imagine my flesh growing
under the weight of it, melding together.
there’s something in my veins;
it breathes at night
when it thinks i’m asleep.

i tend to my wounds
and say goodbye to all this bleeding out.
the ceiling shapeshifts into something
resembling your face.

Ahhh, loved these lines especially:

i have a certain useless talent:
i can write these corpses into poetry.

all of these were lovely, as always!! so awesome to be able to read your poems have an amazing day, friend!! <3