I have a new crown of dizzy flies
who smell the dead air nausea.
Ecstatic violence leaps from my arms
to strike many times the ledger
‘til the scales fall scoliotic
at my tired feet.
The flies, the flies,
love when my tongue is drying out
in the cool bedsheet hotel feeling room,
and my throat whimpers and my eyes catch.
Silver instruments prevent the latch.
Should I saw off my hair in braids, give them to the birds?
Arrange them in a heart on the mantle? Behind museum glass?
Bloodless eagle hangs like a mobile
in the cool bedsheet hotel feeling room.
My pelt on the floor, cold.
No strings, no crown stirs the air.
flirt with the anarchists’ handlebars
and live to draw big flowers.
Sexy sardine mommy
licks around the world rim.
Tattoo maker shaves the skin
of the wannabe fag-and-poke punker.
The twigs love my authentic corps.
They chew my rubber nipples.
Milk-fed weasel spirals the cum of everything,
the blind driver with the earthrazed highbeams
the dogsbodies, the dogeaters,
the whine-chime, the life-wag,
I feel like Cow being processed
I feel like a veiled bonfire
I feel like a boltcutter
I feel like grit in your eyes
I feel like Chicken grease on the chin
I feel like epidural spinal flexion
I feel like an addiction to blood
I feel like suckling Piglet
I feel like god
I feel like harrow and scythe
I feel like Mars
I feel like Bitch in heat
Picture me screeching and keening in that pathetic way:
I’m a person!
But I can’t write any words the size of God
and I can’t cut down the fence from inside the yard.
At the thrift store I bought
a tank top that smells like a baby.
Do I look sexy?
Am I endearing?
Should I crop it?
I’m a person, would you fuck me?
Would you sing in my chorus?
Shannon Harvey (she/her/elle) is a queer writer from New Brunswick, Canada. She holds a BA in English and Philosophy from UNB,
and an MA in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster.