(- THE MOST  H O L I S T I C  WAY TO CHOKE SOMEONE -)
   
Go ahead baby girl divine queen
Crack those black sunflower seeds open
Inside of your mouth

Suck some of the salt off the shell
Just a lil bit first though
And slide that tongue between the pieces

Chomp one little heart
Spit

    

    

RUINS AND ROOKIES
   
On my 26th birthday

A peacock did a mating dance at me
Right there

In front of my mama and grandma
In Arizona

Two weeks before
My first wedding

Now I’m here
And there’s a store called “White Lady”

    

  

A hand-painted Mason-Dixon child
    
I saw an old pig
Wearing your black jeans

A nod to “utopian” living
Summertime
Catchin’ lighnin’ bugs

I consistently accept beneficial elements
Like pink plastic ice trays
And extra sets of keys

I felt nervous and old as a child
I thought trains would run me over in my bed at night
Elves were in the basement

But most of all
I just want you to know, right now
That snakes are fragile

    

  

W A R R I O R S   D A M A G E D
   
Returning in gloomy spirits
Returning with gaping wide-mouthed heads
With facsimile drawings of the calls for peace engraved
Into bloody knees with gravel

Cars crashing
Bodies flying
Blood flowing down hot
As red-pepper-in-July sidewalks
Posters marked with Sharpie
Fat-tipped love quotes Googled
On a gorgeous summer morning

The shepherd’s wife
Is hanging from a pipe

 

 

_____
These poems are from Rebekah Morgan’s Hotel Alexander, out now from House of Vlad