Love Spell from My Past & Future Bodies
I’m bleeding smoke salt so he loves me
scouring for leaves in a t pot
won’t matter if he loves me or he loves me not
I will get him in his olfactory
with derivatives from acid wash cunts
or testes, if he craves, so he loves me
twice a day I take turpentine, topnotch
& I sub his leather polish for poppies
won’t matter if he loves me or he loves me not
when I drip menstrual blood in hennessy
he’s gagging outside Babylon for what
I’m turning, miss or xy, so he loves me
I will compel a swell in my crotch
or I will be prepping that boy pussy
won’t matter if he loves me or he loves me not
I’ve got myrrh that grows in my heart of hearts
I’ve got a tongue, a lock, a key, a knot
that will bind him & o won’t he love me
or at least it won’t matter if not, if only
Luftpause
after the, second breath I’m dreaming of other breaths
which balloon my eyelids like sails walloped with
salt everything from the neck up an oceanscape
after the second breath I’m ten minutes away by boat
to a cataract unlike hypercapnia on the rocks her plunge
of devil’s throat inciting familiar panic in siren song
after the second breath silence the autonomous sensory
meridian a stream of air secure as a bonnet a bonnet
a symbol of girlhood shield & minded
after the second breath I’m ten minutes away from you
the time tuples from a lifespan of hydroelectric mills
the water wheels are broken but we’re still running
after the second breath I am giving my arms to the water
I am giving my legs to the water I am giving my lungs
to the water I am replacing like theseus so the body won’t notice
after the second breath ten minutes are left
until you become a mermaid entombed in bronze on a ship
until the tides fold into a loudsoft sighing
until the sheens against my lips refuse to go, taut
Joey Belonger is a queer transfeminine writer, educator, and printmaker from Chicago, IL. They currently live in Iowa City, where they are a poetry MFA candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Previous work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Cleaver, Storyscape, The Cardiff Review, and elsewhere. Follow them on twitter @JoebyElonger