Three poems

 

persephone imagines a chariot

 

he loves me / not enough

not to touch me / my  awful god

 

splits me open the way

gods do / they know

no better

my ribcage is a carnival /                     ride

me up so high the birds

fall out /

 

 

persephone barricades the bathroom door

 

in the ink-set hairs he draws

my contract /                here

my scales sweet a lullaby / alligator

at the window /

chomp             chomp

the birds

give birth to ghost

after / the ghost

he wants is a real live girl / peplum

skirts & an offering

of spines / split

water like split legs i delta into /           where

the trees grow worms

eat little bird bullets

come back but they don't

come back / i

have no stomach left

to fill  / why  am i swollen

why does my hair fall out

 

persephone opens her legs for a better view

 

he comes

like hail &

every thrust

the ricochet

of himself

off of him

self / boy born

of mojave

night flashes

of sun-colors

& a withering

mirage / antelope

eat their babies

& i am moving

my desk

to another

room where

the curtains

aren’t so

thin

‘Pomegranate I’, the artist’s own tears, ink and gold pigment on paper

‘Pomegranate I’, the artist’s own tears, ink and gold pigment on paper

ART BY CATERINA LEONE

Caterina Leone is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Her paintings and works on paper investigate belief systems of the past and present, why they exist and why they change, and the shifting boundaries between science, mythology and religion. Her work often incoporates mediums or techniques infuenced by alchemy, such as tears, natural pigments or drawing with copper and gold. www.caterinaleone.com | Instagram: @caterina.leone.art 

Kathryne David Gargano hails from the Pacific Northwest, but isn't very good at climbing trees. She recently graduated with her MFA in Poetry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has been published in CALYXHeavy Feather ReviewThe FEMIndicia, The Colorado Review, and others.