For Chloee
It is strange to glimpse
this likeness of a bestial shaman
(or is it my own flesh?)
in the streetlight’s greasy brightness
(a firefly’s arch-nemesis)
Behind me are shapeless walls
coloured in yellow wallpapers
& I can walk through them
as I can through the thundercloud on the streets,
the mammoth on the rooftop
shapeless,
amorphous
no- they have always been intangible
still I yearn for the cynical warmth
of the heart-hearth that smoulders inside,
the green-clad worker sprites
(policemen wear the ghoulish coverings of a bluebird)
who pull me back to my deathbed
from underneath, pulling
from above, spitting
& devouring,
with mint-misted tongues
a salix babylonica is what sprouts from my teeth
(saliva as waterfalls, free-flowing)
tangerines hanging in my lungs
like alveoli, east of my fingertips
Here, a seraph approaches me
in raven bones, lightning branches,
bearing a totem of oblivious ambitions
tells me to cut an oracle from my mouth
& I do:
the sky retches in carmine tides
tides that churn shipwrecks into wights
finally, will the moon reciprocate the mammoth’s love
I too, love
& love
& love
in undulating violence,
may chrysanthemum fields never be bled dry
(yet cannibalism is a crime worthy of hellhounds)
earth, what a beguiling illusion
from lavender to marigold
I will see you to cataclysmic ends
But I must go now,
for the muffin man is waving his harlequin pistol
(can’t you see those oceanic sirens?)
& what a funny one too,
eager in its sanguinary lusts,
(quick, someone seize my last bag of souvenirs)
a shooting star dozes between my feverish breasts
(sculpt them into statues fit for an eternalist garden)
I must hurry to finish this unwritten act
of anything, anything
already, the embracing night eclipses the azure skies
oh skies,
bringing to me sapphire slaughterhouses
gemstone coals fall
weep not–
Bio: Willow is a writer from Singapore, where she is studying. Her current preoccupations include taking naps, and taking naps. While not in school, Willow reads a copious amount of fairytales and writes the same way to keep herself sane. Coffee breaks are also on her mind.
You can find Willow on instagram: @oldmanheart.
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