✧ Finalist for the 2021 Gearhart Poetry Contest ✧
Selected by Rosebud Ben-Oni
Pick What Story You Would Like Me to Become
something that comes
from the bottom of your mouth
dredged up in the cow dung
of your saliva
a dancing girl with one anklet the skin trail
from chest to navel layered
in nut grass knot weed
money piled at my feet voice clinking
with moonlight
hiding behind
your front steps bury bird bones
in your backyard and hope
mine
follows after
churn nerves in my spine
until I’m container
filled with the sweat
of your wishful thinking
moths kiss me as I plant myself
against the floor
spread my legs and enter
myself it must be hard
not to watch how my nipples harden
under the weight of your words
hatching me
into hyena laugh red eyes
in a dark hallway the type you run
from
silence
as I walk past you
gusts of wind
shivering
down your neck arrow
the piece of roti
you can’t swallow crooked teeth
the type you run towards
octopus suction
smear
the thing that makes you want
a mallet the whisper
of the deserted chunari
you clawed and left
on the floor for others to stomp on
dish rag unzipped
jeans a hole
in the ground to pack your dirt into
should I
pet the back of your throat
as you become hoarse
from prying open
terror
tie me with the bracelets
you once plucked off my wrists
it’s delicious
the fear that crowds
you when I lifted my head
and walked
even after they lit the havan kund
and I bathed
in fire your dirt disintegrating
except
for the likeness of your smile on my face
it begs
for the image of me
piercing
my arms in the air
a trishul aiming for the necks
of everything
you’ve tried to make me
ASHLEY SOMWARU is an Indo-Caribbean woman who was born and raised in Queens. She received an MFA in poetry from Queens College and her chapbook Urgent \\ Where The Mind Goes \\ Scattered (2021) was recently published by Ghostbird Press. Her work has appeared in Honey Literary, Solstice, SWWIM, The Margins, VIDA Review, and elsewhere.