[I've seen animals when they love]

I've seen animals when they love
They do it better than me

At the Art Institute I look at a stone carving
of a calf drinking from its mother

I know I'm only capable of giving to
& taking from myself

but I think about it for days, the emptying out
the manipulation of nourishment

I’m like an animal I don't wear jewelry
I'm ready for fucking & for decomposing

All I wear are your insults
They carve lines into me, mark me

like a dog pissing on a tree—
is there a reason it picked that tree?

Can animals be insulted?
Is being insulted the opposite of nourishment?

Would it nourish me to forget you?
I think about this as I wait for your response

I think about this as I empty myself
until I realize I don't care anymore

Now I'm only thinking about how
the biggest insult is that poop is low in calories

Now I’m yawning
when your name marks my inbox

more interested in you
when you were depriving me

of something

Francesca Kritikos is an editor living in Chicago. She graduated from the English literature and creative writing program at the University of East Anglia in the UK in 2017. Her poetry has appeared in Ache, Peach Mag and Hobart, among other publications. Her first chapbook, It Felt Like Worship, was published by Sad Spell Press in 2017; her first full-length collection, Exercise in Desire, is forthcoming from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press in 2022. She is on Instagram @fmkrit.