TEATH i
Axegrinding
Sparks, blood in the sink
Trying to shove antlers down the plughole
Trying to bend a nail back until the sweating stops
Saltlips, chapped, screaming stretch
Fangcage, adolescent rage, Premature in old age
Bully’s toolkit for the featherhead
In a clumsy skull, the cries rattle inside
Calcium chips and old nerve fries
CHILDCRIES
Childcries
Child hangs limbly in the light, swollen leaning belly
Woman says no, fights back swell and fangs
Child cries weep off the bread
Honeyed crust drying, leaking sticky fingers
Childsick
Child howls on the tiles
Crawls at the wood
Jawing froth and broken sugar
Woman looks for the trees
Childsleeps
Woman holds batwing skin
Stretched taut drums and quiet
Sweatsweet bread
Pieces of pharynx
BABY BADGER LOOKS ON AT DADDY BADGER
The way you show love is to attack
Scrabbling at the hedges
Banging down doors
Burrowing scabs on the ground that will never quite heal
How sacred;
I hope I’m roadkill, one day
Scare Them when I look up at the empty
This is how we show love
And I love the way you maim and destroy
Alien Buddha Press 