Poetry:
sterling-elizabeth
arcadia
girls against god
after annihilation (2018)
remember how you cheated on heaven
stared that alligator-angel in its eye & shot it dead?
how your vertebrae surged with joy
shimmered against the skin of your spine.
he left you between dark walls
& corrupting light—heaven-sent heaven
gone to be in the south. with the silent water
among those crystal trees.
& when your jaw sunk into my throat
i swallowed, saw the antler-angels watching.
allowed, a hungry breath will take the world,
if not for wanting, for copper.
allowed, a table-angel will elect the third way.
when you find gods wound, burn it
between your legs—my desiccated heaven
sterling-elizabeth arcadia (she/they) is a trans poet and diy tattooer in baltimore, where she watches birds and cares for her cat. her work has been published in Stone of Madness Press, New Delta Review, Poetry.onl, and elsewhere.
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