diomedea technofossil
gastrointestinal tract n.
/ˌɡastrōinˈtestənl/
the organs that food and liquids travel through when they
are swallowed, digested, absorbed, and leave the body as feces.
“ginger soothes your gastrointestinal tract.”
; his gut—
a constellation of
carefully curated carrion moving
messier objects
between gizzard & proventriculus
[razzle-dazzle rose
bunny figurine legs
banana mania
teeny-tiny-tic-tac box
squid beak
atomic tangerine
coke-a-cola bottle cap
tickle-me-pink
tampon applicator
jellyfish
jazzberry jam
travel-sized toothbrush
wild blue yonder
badminton shuttle-cock
aztec gold
doll-house hairbrush
fish eggs
fuzzy wuzzy brown
broken-down locomotive]
body n.
/ˈbädē/
the physical structure of an animal or a person,
including the bones, flesh, and organs.
“it’s important to keep your body in good condition.”
; his corpse—
technicolor choros
seething with drunk maggots
wrapped in feather boas
esophagus n.
/əˈsäfəɡəs,ˌēˈsäfəɡəs/
the part of the alimentary canal that connects
the throat to the stomach; the gullet.
“always thoroughly chew your food, or else it will block your esophagus.”
; his silence—
the return migration of her voice
performing a ritual of grooming
upon a shrine to polythene kudzu
mate n.
/māt/
each of a pair of birds or other animals.
“a male bird sings to court a mate.”
—; beloved
a bird bound to her lover’s flesh,
now an unmade home
◆
feral
after the flood we move as synchronized swimmers. as if my porcine gait was made for your bovine two-step. out here the water does not cleanse. it indicts. whispers to the blood marred in mississippi soil: rise up. reveals this pasture to be sacrificial altar. here they still carve their sins into our flesh like a ledger. say it’s for all our salvation. say they can still taste the atlantic in our sweat. i guess some memories they can’t breed out of you. i begged for a rainwater baptismal. but my wake was a colostrum bloodbath. still. my soul is an estuary. she fills swamps. she soothes screams. still she dances calypso in the breeze.
