I know I am not empty – life inside me
is grit and blood and a light buried in
sinew which has made me this star – and it is so far
inside my bones
that I know what I am
and where in me churns spiral and what
has been taken now that my love is
now monstrous for things I never meant to
bury tell me Thera how have you learned to
hide civilizations within you? they call you
atomic but your center nests quiet ships
full cities and trees take root in your skin
as you shed fire stones in salt water
how do you live with yourself
when they name you ending
when healing is something you
wait on when you know you are monstrous
but your heartspill was never meant to cause flight
it was just that you couldn’t live holding back
what was in you when what was in you was new
*
Kristian Macaron (she/her), resides in Albuquerque, NM, a land full of treasures, but is often elsewhere. Her full-length poetry collection Recipe for Time Travel in Case We Lose Each Other is forthcoming in 2022 from Game Over Books Publications. Her poetry chapbook Storm, released in 2015 from Swimming with Elephants Publications. Other prose and poetry publications can be found in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Luna Luna Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, Rust + Moth, Gargoyle Magazine, and others. She is a co-founding editor of the literary journal, Manzano Mountain Review. View her work and updates at Kristianmacaron.com
Instagram: @maps_with_monsters
Twitter: @kristianmacaron
Photo by Marek Piwnicki from Pexels