REN HLAO
Image by Andrea Aidekman
little god; you open
farmland under my feet,, needlewitches: bent and bowing << // dawnsnap sour in the mouth, forest
to prison to ash ;; hunching low: still on a soilsat stoop in tarnac / datura hive << life is long even
thinking it can be molar cracking ,, i have no idea where to put all this violence— little god; you
open >> carwreck sound // i move like a sack; more locally i am bonehard in your guts <<
catatonic, all anemic // i order god : elder of this new harshness waving from a rickshaw >>
foodstamps run out i run out of the office downtown when they catch my lying / metal detector
hums is penetrated by my wet husk .. map of stretchmarks .. streets stretch i’m a bit bent this
livingretch like a wave of raids like suction from thousands of lips parting the stench << swollen
pores cleaned all sniffling little lickings,, more locally i’m in a rabbit warren it is full of soft
moments // a man shaving the legs of his husband; inside i get dreidel dizzy,, clay, you lay there
so busy—trek tracking—,imprinting the traction >> file the cops under rocks // city made of hash
the wilderness has been mapped this ferocity of poverty like lines of ants tracking borax to the nest
;; harlequin fetus grew into a divot then set ,, sink spits only brown water ; garden plot does not
produce ceilings high and possessive to suffer under ,, (overpriced restaurant around the corner
needs dead rats) i have faith it is shaken <>
to prison to ash ;; hunching low: still on a soilsat stoop in tarnac / datura hive << life is long even
thinking it can be molar cracking ,, i have no idea where to put all this violence— little god; you
open >> carwreck sound // i move like a sack; more locally i am bonehard in your guts <<
catatonic, all anemic // i order god : elder of this new harshness waving from a rickshaw >>
foodstamps run out i run out of the office downtown when they catch my lying / metal detector
hums is penetrated by my wet husk .. map of stretchmarks .. streets stretch i’m a bit bent this
livingretch like a wave of raids like suction from thousands of lips parting the stench << swollen
pores cleaned all sniffling little lickings,, more locally i’m in a rabbit warren it is full of soft
moments // a man shaving the legs of his husband; inside i get dreidel dizzy,, clay, you lay there
so busy—trek tracking—,imprinting the traction >> file the cops under rocks // city made of hash
the wilderness has been mapped this ferocity of poverty like lines of ants tracking borax to the nest
;; harlequin fetus grew into a divot then set ,, sink spits only brown water ; garden plot does not
produce ceilings high and possessive to suffer under ,, (overpriced restaurant around the corner
needs dead rats) i have faith it is shaken <>
nothing adoptive
control limbs like bone sucked into a sewermouth pillage law
oil boils in a bowl of fish then hardens scalpel made of mineral earth i am
a muscled choke you spit like sludgemeat i feel the knead buckling to your stigmata
obsession a bored social worker gnarled and hardened like a dewclaw finds you rabid
at the mouth and off seals you like a border in the sticky flesh of a dewdrop spoons the curd of life
into your frothmouth pick up an acorn peel off the stiff hat crack it
like a mind starve tapeworm rob your blood of its blades wake up
get cancer (swallow me hospital) cause harm like a highway cough life onto the frozen earth
like a masturbatory habit chant pagan
into clouds of sour furs i chew teeth that fall from your mouth spit them out they are pale grits
for the corner of my red stone plate when the spirit flees your carcass chew melted rock
i hang an elk pelt from the crooked porchlight like an aqueous cross (christ, mechanist) i am waving
goodbye with a blade when your eyes open in heaven i hack disease into the universe the wind
weaving a halo of dead grass through my knotted hair
oil boils in a bowl of fish then hardens scalpel made of mineral earth i am
a muscled choke you spit like sludgemeat i feel the knead buckling to your stigmata
obsession a bored social worker gnarled and hardened like a dewclaw finds you rabid
at the mouth and off seals you like a border in the sticky flesh of a dewdrop spoons the curd of life
into your frothmouth pick up an acorn peel off the stiff hat crack it
like a mind starve tapeworm rob your blood of its blades wake up
get cancer (swallow me hospital) cause harm like a highway cough life onto the frozen earth
like a masturbatory habit chant pagan
into clouds of sour furs i chew teeth that fall from your mouth spit them out they are pale grits
for the corner of my red stone plate when the spirit flees your carcass chew melted rock
i hang an elk pelt from the crooked porchlight like an aqueous cross (christ, mechanist) i am waving
goodbye with a blade when your eyes open in heaven i hack disease into the universe the wind
weaving a halo of dead grass through my knotted hair
REN HLAO grew up outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Their work has appeared in online and print publications including Homestead Review, White Stag Publishing, and Dangerous Constellations Journal. They live in San Diego, California with their partner and four dogs.