Arsenic Lobster poetry journal
Issue Seventeen
Summer 2008
| Home | Current Issue | Contributors | Review | Order | Archive | Submission | About Us | Contact Us |
 
mortality: a study
Arlene Ang

   i.

we begin with a fish market and ask ourselves
about function. flies swarm the snappers on shaved ice
and lift like dresses over the heads of passersby.


   ii.

imagine a pet shop upside-down. the cockatoo
takes a coin for its fanatic lover and sips margarita.
we deconstruct the cage to return to the fire.


   iii.

the 7:30 train explores christ's wounds. it clears
the throat of a man waiting for his own vomit.
he holds a spoon in one hand and his tongue in the other.


   iv.

we take a cab to the war museum. we are running
away from our body. if someone were to blow up
the bridge, would the sensation of loss alter?


   v.

a girl sits on the sidewalk sucking blood from her arm.
we don't ask ourselves if she's hurt. we re-arrange
the debris in the mail. this is our way of reversing time.

About Arlene Ang

| Home | Current Issue | Contributors | Review | Order | Archive | Submission | About Us | Contact Us |