<\/p>\n

Natural History<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You shark-circle me, I know,<\/p>\n

But I am in my own ocean,<\/p>\n

Lying in hushed dark blue and looking up<\/p>\n

To the curve of the tail of my blue whale.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You veer into the Coastal Indians,<\/p>\n

Begin snapping shots of masks,<\/p>\n

Of masks within masks.<\/p>\n

A great beaked bird reveals a second visage \u2013<\/p>\n

Craft within craft.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I read you and the tyrannosaurus a poem.<\/p>\n

We both want:<\/p>\n

The sudden generation of muscle and blood,<\/p>\n

Shiva the destroyer as tyrant king,<\/p>\n

A charge of chaos, of clean hunger.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You are a half-ton silver crystal.<\/p>\n

I am a sun-stained sapphire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You are a storm-colored fish with sharp teeth.<\/p>\n

I am a turtle with wings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You are a galaxy so far off that I only learn from your light.<\/p>\n

I am a brazen butterfly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But of course that\u2019s you \u2013<\/p>\n

The thing unseen,<\/p>\n

The face behind two wooden faces.<\/p>\n

Strict.\u00a0 Careful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And of course, that\u2019s me \u2013<\/p>\n

Watery, clear, round as an O,<\/p>\n

Rhythmed,<\/p>\n

Mutable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* \u00a0* \u00a0*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Quarry<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You wake up, without fail, hungry,<\/p>\n

Sunlight pulsating onto your opened palms,<\/p>\n

Scratching at cliffsides.<\/p>\n

Wolves trample through your nights, mouths rouged,<\/p>\n

Whiskered with wanting, vowing that<\/p>\n

Morning holds wealth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Words are idiosyncrasies, substance perfumed and imperfect.<\/p>\n

Funny, when you dream of magic fangs,<\/p>\n

They spirit away like steam<\/p>\n

Before your quarry is caught.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He\u2019s elusive, that one,<\/p>\n

You should have torn him to fucking ribbons in his sleep.<\/p>\n

Now his voice is a vermilion thread in night\u2019s tapestry,<\/p>\n

The moon is full of blood,<\/p>\n

You call yourself witch, animal, and<\/p>\n

You eat everything, ravening varmint.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wolves stream though your nights, jagged predators\u2028<\/p>\n

Snapping at phantasms, \u2028<\/p>\n

Mirages of muscle and meat,\u2028<\/p>\n

Eternally at the tail-end of scent,\u2028<\/p>\n

Mouths the color of overripe strawberries,\u2028<\/p>\n

Tracking men long gone,\u2028<\/p>\n

Chasing the flimsiest siren’s song,\u2028<\/p>\n

Sleep too gravid to leap from,<\/p>\n

Light too soft for savagery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You shark-circle me, I know,<\/p>\n

But I am in my own ocean,<\/p>\n

Lying in hushed dark blue and looking up<\/p>\n

To the curve of the tail of my blue whale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5188,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186\/revisions\/5188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}