Four Poems by Kathryne David Gargano

i slide your words inside a clear glass ornament

i slide your words inside a clear glass ornament / i keep them safe this way
& mine

i write them each on slips of paper / shake shake shake &

rearrange / my own language in your words / i speak it &

you stare at me / slow blink / spools of thread under my tongue &

every time i speak i sew a picture &

this is my design / portrait / landscape

this is where i put my chair

this is the money i am owed

every picture you try

to unravel / change the color of my thread / you are greedy with your tongue

lick each letter

i’ve put my hands inside you / your organs / i know

the shape of your intestines / the law of your spleen

every month i bleed &

you think i’m afraid of your spit?

you cauterize the words

but they grow back / hydra not-hydra / your flame won’t work here

more words

into the silo / chop chop chop

wood-chip words / more than prefix / i am more

than the urn where (wo /                  man) goes to die

these daughters & these sisters

in the caldron of her father’s arms she opens / her eyes marry the white tree / bark-skinned & the armor drops her mother’s locket becomes a wolf & she rides / her hair fur lips growl & the cry a thumbprint in the night /

her father loved her when she was dead but the lesson is over / the masterpiece is the river / balcony / skylight waiting for an army to raze & rise / she takes everything & everything is taken with her / to fill the hollow

of a woman’s tongue / & your sister to become a better place

 

what should i stay

& she is still again twitching ceased she finds a way out / plans an ocean massacre / cuts her wigs builds a ship from the strands from eyelashes & spit & pubic hair / melts the crown a gold sword / her breasts they sway bare / distract the enemy / creature heart she is never leaving / & in the dirt she’ll find her love & harmonic

no, i am here & we three

together

bottle the snakes / she won’t leech this poison (a fuck you to your empire / i have no counsel & i obey nothing / i disaster at my will / & when i wreck your ship with the brights of my eyes say

 

) your language & the white brush you paint / she twines her nightdress into

sails

& naked on the barge

 

titan

clay makes birds out of itself

sunflowers grow weary of constant light &  close their eyes

i am a titan / push push push

in the cart i watch the horse flanks sweat & shudder

the laughter of a small child is the price we pay for ideology

the laughter of a bridge is the collapse

my hands turn to pink balloons & pop

i don’t want to go to the party

over the edge of some far mountain is a canyon & then another mountain

memory stares at the soles of your feet

i become another species when wet

funerals mark the day everyone realizes you are gone

i leave the book on the highest shelf spine toward the wall

what if g-d had a crisis of conscience

the party is loud & people are drinking

in my throat i hear a goose honk

everywhere a feather drops is a museum

i wonder if we’ll ever go to mars

when the mountain drops off it means the architect got lazy

the fear of everything is everywhere

what if the old gods came back

do you remember the summer we killed the spider in your windowsill

we are still paying for that i think

an old spanish cross lopes across the desert

Kathryne David Gargano hails from the Pacific Northwest, but isn’t very good at climbing trees. She recently graduated with her MFA in Poetry from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, and has been published in CALYX, Perceptions, and Alchemy. Her work is forthcoming from The Fem, Lavender Review, Indicia, and the Colorado Review. You can find pictures of her three-legged pup on Instagram @peternelle3. 

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