Infrequent Remedies
on the coastline of sympathy, you’ve visited sand dunes that molt and turn into the fractions I've
kept in utero. tepid as the overwhelming sound of sincerity i’ve held an open discussion
with the flagellation imposed on my mind by your silence and determined two things:
byproducts of intimidation and intimacy are similar we cannot define the atmosphere of
deterioration by delirium.
the phone rings
“uterus calling; have you heard the news? on the streets, we’re writhing in riots.”
the phone rings
“miss, vacancy in your uterus is a sign of malcontent or miscommunication”
the phone rings
“misunderstandings of what the famine of femininity means; you are an aries, fire tongue willed
and wistful; fucking fruitful; fucking famished”
the phone rings
“i’m staring at this tattered moon you call self in the sky and wishing angst or violence in your
mouth, is the ringing in your ear yet? tinnitus is a symptom of derelict actions your uterus is
rebelling will you fill it”
the phone rings
“you are an aries an orpheus an orphan an empty and unmentioned hysterectomy; silence slit
across your wrist, bleeding only phantom dances; if not now when, ram?”
i disconnect the phone.
safespaces
there is a crevice
i call my own
wrapped in the twine of dusk sulfur tears salt membrane
i have lived in
a hollow
cradling lucidity
the fringes of discord
forlorn veins tainted yellow
—i h a v e trembled in the alcove chanting
a melted ordinance
a vocal negation of glass embryos
we will burn in the cavity
of temperance
a fractal of my enigma
smeared across your cheek
this was never my space
Ashley Miranda is a latinx poet from Chicago. Her work has been previously featured in The Denver Quarterly, White Stag, pioneertown, HOUND lit and has upcoming work being featured in Civil Coping Mechanism's anthology, Shadow Map. She tweets impulse poetry and other ramblings @dustwhispers.