disgorge
apple cores strewn li(k)e

crumpled newspaper

pages

in my cousin’s living room

 

eyes torn out, i

said,

 

“open a window in

here”

 

(stuffily hot while we are

chilled to the tantalizing

bone)

 

sockets bleeding

freely, i

sobbed,

i’m sorry i can’t love you

            in the way

            that i want to

 

strewn among pots and pots and

pans,

((plants tend to

wither here; or seeds

vanish before they can

grow))

 

strewn among pots and pots and

pans, you

 

slip my eyes into

ship’s deck palms like

collector marbles,

you

 

tremble like an avalanche

you shipwreck you

 

strew yourself

like apple cores; swimming

in metaphors we

 

you measure your worth

with scales feathers and bits of

mold – my figurehead

fingers fumbling through those countless

cores

 
ever after
& your larynx sifted

by my sandstone fingertips

 

(leave me breathless – stranded

on some balmy beach with rays of

slick-rose, gerbil-toothed sun

nibbling away at my wildberry

cheekbones; leave me

coffin-limp & lifeless, pallid

as your sheet-set on an october

shore)

 

—Poems by Camille Thigpen
***
—Background photo by Doriana Mariatrace affiliate link | Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG ‘University Blue’ — Ietp