by Rose Hunter
You As Snake
to wonder that leaf rustle and think
sliding over that wall you would
cut yourself on the blades, while
remembering how, as a child, afraid
of new, dark places and I try
to find this fear but like the train
you’re expecting out the mountain
when what you don’t know
the gleam is just imagination
always the glass was this thick with us
and what I’d give to be your beer
and cigarette bearer another
sun-blanched morning along Madero
returning to you and since I can’t summon
any fear of bogeymen and monsters
so; the concrete between cobblestone
is moving, so; ignoring warning sign(s)
like cardiomyopathy fatty liver
hepatitus – the look on your face
you said you look four…
and where did you go who did you see
and why did it take so long? I loved it
I knew it meant you cared
come here goofy; come here four
let me tell you what a whore you are
you’re crazy, you’re a whore, you’re four.
You As Me In the Mirror
how in my pink and black 04
& when I use the hairdryer
I turn off all the lights (this
made you laugh): a sports team
that never existed; the memory of
as, you, who & it’s true
I’ve never seen a whale
why would I when
I can look to your hills
flushing in the late afternoon
like I did then; it wasn’t hot air
how you said, the sound of my palm
on your soft cheek, I never knew
how happy I could be.
You As Drag
the rip at the arm a moment of starfish
and sea horse before the first step, hip clash
fang sink or cruel guitarrón
I am a semi-nude ascending a staircase
my free hand going to ground –
although this is already a bottom
I am searching for another
more usable, kind
but what there is; more red
agate and ballooning Bismark palm
B. nobilis and the intercostals
hold on as long as perforated paper.
Rolling on the bandage, a ribbon.
The trinket clasp with facing teeth.
Being swept off my feet.
Rose Hunter‘s writing can be found at Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home. Her book of poetry, to the river, was published in 2010 by Artistically Declined Press. Poems of hers have appeared or are forthcoming in such places as Diagram, PANK, kill author, The Nervous Breakdown, anderbo, Juked, The Toronto Quarterly, Bluestem, and others. She edits the poetry journal YB and lives in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
A-Minor 