The Proclamation of Rex Siphonophore
Poetry
“May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’” - Numbers 5:22
A mile-long spool of cyan vein
(Failed to thread the needle)
Red strung bulbs burn with tide fervor
(Dry grease burns lone steeples)
Sundry of ribs thumb raw footpaths
(Festering fresh clothed tongue)
Fluorescent arms rinsed with sea salt
(Leaven dust swept by lung)
Silver ring breaks on moldy wood
(I prune the browned fig trees)
Harpooned for krill beneath the wharf
(Net full of stale stung fleas)
From bite poured Maraschino wine
(Flesh made holy fire)
Interlocked hands cut swollen tail
(Croons the seraphim choir)
From ruined wax roe birth cursed kin
(Pick thorn-grown seeds of rye)
Bodies heave with acid-soaked breath
(They sunk the coins in lye)
Rotten fish blessed by twilight rain
(Sheepskin gloves the left hand)
Innocent flesh maimed with sun-kiss
(Exiled from promised land)