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
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 CALYX, Heavy Feather Review, The FEM, Indicia, The Colorado Review, and others.
