eclipsing
The sun is a drowning god
In a sea of dark skies
The moon hangs itself
While people dance under its glowing corpse
Animated and ghostly
A dinner party of people half alive
Still wanting
A touch that doesn’t hurt
When i ask you to hold me
I meant love me for this fleeting moment
Because you are bigger than the earth
And i’m desperate to be in your orbit
So i’ll take after the moon for a while
And you can eclipse with me one day
But for now i am a glowing corpse
All tragic, all magic
Dance under me, lover
Even that i can’t call you
But you don’t have a name
Cannot be confined to letters
Signed ever yours
menage a trois
i was on display
in red light waning moon
to two lovers
both did not love me
and i loved that
i was held down
and propped up
on pillow soft pins and needles
the way they like
me as a doll
all sex and contortion
i was left as crumpled paper
rotted fruit peel and cigarette butt
i was nicotine replacement
while he kissed the real thing
while she lit him and took a drag
while they burned and burned
i was merely the filter
a good thing caught in the way
and god i loved that
times of famine
you fell into me
in a theatrical kind of desperation
i know you’re still trying to feel something
in a way that says i am bleeding
and i want you to be a scab
but platelet lover
i will not always be there
to keep you alive long enough to die
to keep you warm long enough to strip midwinter
to keep you here long enough to leave
to eat in times of famine
but this is a glorious exception
we are all hungry for someone
to fall into
in a defeated kind of nosedive
headfirst into arms/legs/hearts/it hurts
but your blood is sweet
and it’s cold
and you’re leaving
me again
for more permanent pleasures
Jenna Velez is an emerging poet and essayist from suburban Philly. She currently runs the blog By Death, She Lives with Rhythm & Bones Press. Jenna has two forthcoming microchapbooks BLOODY SPIRIT AND BATHROOM RITUAL (Bone & Ink Press, April 2020) and THE WHORE MADONNA LEADS THE BLACK MASS (Maverick Duck Press, July 2019). She tweets @northernbruja and can be found at jennavelez.weebly.com
Chantarelle's Notebook 