Bones
ichor coated teeth - trans and unholy
I am
c r a w l i n g o u t o f m y s k i n
grave dirt and coffin wood
I know they're not listening when I tell them
there is no g
o
d
waiting for me
dear grandmother, your daughter bore a c r e a t u r e
made of metal chippings and all of your fears
you tried to make me something h o l y
by pouring baptized water down my throat
but I've always been a -> fire thing
and it just tastes like vodka to me
you're not a r e a l boy, Pinocchio!
and I'm more b o n e than flesh
hard and full of h o l e s
my body whistles
when the wind blows
unreal I fli/cke/r between forms unfit verisimilitude
fluid/solid/gas, gender made -> sex made -> paradox
I take your p r e t o
e c p i n of me
and make it steel
break your t e e t h on me
but I am not real until not looked at
Schrödingers cat got nothing on me
don't look at me don't look at me don't look at m e
I am the soil/I am the house /I am the ghost haunting it
dead heart dead kid dead dreams still b r e a t h i n g
I am chewing on my own brain
grasping my own shoulders and
s-h-a-k-i-n-g-m-e
gritting teeth and s t r a n g l i n g the sickness
I'm trying to sew shut the h o l e in my chest
cross my heart and hope to die
I can't stand the f e e l of my own skin
they pulled out my t e e t h and they grew back b
ichor turned blood I tongue at bone r
I swallow mouth/fulls of copper/coins i
mirrors show me a face I don't recognize t
all I see is blown eyes and bottom less hunger t
they kept telling me angel thing, sing a tune for us l
blonde little child, curls around a cherubim face e
I open my mouth and scream
got no use for a pretty face and holy voice
come and look at them trying/to/touch
and watch me
d e v o u r t h e h a n d s t h a t f e e d
this morning, january, forever
small sharp knives
wind-driven
caressing red cheeks
tender
cold glass air
inhaled, gently
filling irritated
lungs
opaque sky
clouding vision
tiny white stars,
whirling
fractal winter
blanketing asphalt
an icy, quiet
sleep
gusts of white
stirred by motion
a dance,
jubilation
numbness
in the flesh
slow-motion,
sluggish
a warmth
behind the ribs
kindness,
between the snow
nothing will ever compare
windy and sharp and bitter, bitter cold
and warm inside, anyway
i'm falling in love all over again
robbery of the i (breathless and bleeding)
I keep writing
with this font
and cutting
my words
into parts
so that maybe
maybe
I'll sound
like i know
what i'm
saying
and maybe
people will
think that I
write like
a poet
I've been flexing my jaw
and gently clicking my teeth
and pressing my tongue
against bone
because it's the only thing
between me and
splitting flesh,
cracking my nails sideways
and chewing on knuckles
ain't something you learn
in the lectures on manners
lady
I'm playing with the wire
holding my teeth together
when they'd rather
part and twist
I imagine splitting my t o n g u e
right down
the middle with it
on loop with no exit
for hours I am
unbecoming,
slowly at
breakneck speed
then I am a
this is my un
the wheel keeps
running round in
what makes you hungry
we see seas, please
can you hear the
sit beneath
what sets you free
traps you inside
I've become reliant
on this
what do I do when I
am not nothing, the
tongues I speak are
nothing in the face
of the black hole th
at is in the net of el
ectric pulses of my
brain, supermassiv
e, breathtaking, I’m
gasping sitting ther
e breaking my verte
brae, last of the thor
acic, feeling it slide
back into place and
leaving me reeling,
who am I when I am
not talent, fourteen
and singing arias w
ith blood on my t e e t h .
what do I do when I
am still hungry, tha
t terrible mouth wi
de open and hands
straining to touch t
he soft parts I am o
ffered, I fear becom
ming that snarling
thing I see in my dr
eams and feel para
lyzed with it, heart
pounding and out o
f breath until I bec
ome the aching lon
ging I made for me,
who am I when I am
every feeling I shov
ed down my throat
and started to c h e w .
what do I do when I
am angry, years up
on years of controll
ed fury built up and
smoking in the edg
es of my vision like
the holy ghost my g
randmother prays t
o, I am rattling at m
y own cage, built at
six and demolished
age twenty I becom
e godless fury, twis
ted I eat myself, ou
roboros, mine body.
who am I when I am
the ashes made fro
m my own fire, I am
one of the k i n d l i n g .
Bones is a multilingual and genderqueer writer from Austria. Ey writes about inner struggles put into words of motion as well as generational trauma and the chaotic battleground it leaves behind. Find him on Twitter @LyraPoison. When not writing, you will usually find em walking through his city with a book in hand. This will be eir second publication.