we are desperate for love, yet not worthy of it
We dipped our fingers of decorated soot into a crevice
Where bitter honey ran inside, where ground had opened
Its mouth wide, and caressed it with unshaven nails.
The flesh clung with dirt, kissed human nature with a mouth
Which had lost all its will, we scratched an innocent palate
Even as we cried each other’s tears till we choked the mouth.
A bleeding tongue licked and prayed; teeth closed upon it.
It spat out an embossed ring, pleaded with us:
To marry the uprooted woman who had turned gray.
Honey was a dressing of ashes on salads we stole
From a child who died so that everything else could live,
His spirit crossed lines on the ground, demanded a sacrifice.
Our fingers sprouted horns, oh! the devil laughed in a quiet hiss
And the lovers signed a veto with tar-imprinted faces,
Skies wore clouds as cloaks as the ground crunched---
It bit off finger off hands, growled like a challenged alpha.
We loved it as much as a missile loves it launcher, it doesn’t.
It cracked our skulls with our brains which had seen Medusa
Where she came to our continent, as a stealthy foreigner
And slipped concert tickets under our bedroom doors.
We let our mouths loll in globs of insanity, forgot to wipe them;
Wipe our eyes we did, but only after they were dry
Like a seasonal river, their tracts were wild with footprints.
Caresses were never entitled to be of love, and here they mocked.
We had fingers for claws, the ground had tendrils of soul
Which we exorcised into a ghost that never saw the light.
We were killing it before it killed us.
Where bitter honey ran inside, where ground had opened
Its mouth wide, and caressed it with unshaven nails.
The flesh clung with dirt, kissed human nature with a mouth
Which had lost all its will, we scratched an innocent palate
Even as we cried each other’s tears till we choked the mouth.
A bleeding tongue licked and prayed; teeth closed upon it.
It spat out an embossed ring, pleaded with us:
To marry the uprooted woman who had turned gray.
Honey was a dressing of ashes on salads we stole
From a child who died so that everything else could live,
His spirit crossed lines on the ground, demanded a sacrifice.
Our fingers sprouted horns, oh! the devil laughed in a quiet hiss
And the lovers signed a veto with tar-imprinted faces,
Skies wore clouds as cloaks as the ground crunched---
It bit off finger off hands, growled like a challenged alpha.
We loved it as much as a missile loves it launcher, it doesn’t.
It cracked our skulls with our brains which had seen Medusa
Where she came to our continent, as a stealthy foreigner
And slipped concert tickets under our bedroom doors.
We let our mouths loll in globs of insanity, forgot to wipe them;
Wipe our eyes we did, but only after they were dry
Like a seasonal river, their tracts were wild with footprints.
Caresses were never entitled to be of love, and here they mocked.
We had fingers for claws, the ground had tendrils of soul
Which we exorcised into a ghost that never saw the light.
We were killing it before it killed us.
Berrs (she/they) is a literature graduate who thinks cherries are the perfect representation of her personality. She has been published previously in The Pangolin Review, GoatsMilk Mag, and is the editor of Blue Daisies Journal.