Defense Curl

i ignore
my peripheral vision
the light walking
over the planes of your face
as you glance at me
some sort of beacon

\

band-aid your foxholes
you are a nesting doll
a lumid talisman
an ugly stone i carried in my pocket and grew fond of

\

i keep returning
to you removing my shoes
a nautilus shell spiraling into blackness on my bed

the unlacing
felt even behind my lids
so delicate
might be the nicest thing anyone has done for me

\

salt   crystal    die     on  a  shelf       figurine   sheen
suspend   the farm     clay  the sunset     embrace your memoried fur
the lens  lost   overgrown snarls   daytime burnings      dished   silvers
jellied   in  reverse   one pink toed  button
you   the  seep     a hair   or  two  too close       not  to  scale    paper  thin

hello?
i have just been informed
to stop mourning my life

 

Ice Bolt, Fire Bomb

the highest piano note
the kind that hurts my teeth
that’s the one
gooseflesh up and down
searching for the kind of kiss
that fits on a finger
not one that will make an egg float

braid me yes plait me
no plate me
don’t make me

okay
i’ll say it
i want to be utterly consumed

 

Paintings in the Waiting Room

bodies charred to sidewalk
bones alive to air
uplifting

does the woman with her cup of pee see these broken bodies
is she aware of her broken body
of mine
looking at no one but the human plaques in the bleakness of the gray

we are reassembling our bodies
uplifting the char and coating ourselves
covering every inch
a suffocating poultice
not quite right but not a memory
shadowed
we are our own eclipse
covered in ourselves

 

Hannah Bishop received her MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is originally from New Jersey. She works in a gastroenterology office but usually prefers reading poems to looking at pictures of intestines. Hannah especially enjoys sweets, cartoons, fun facts, and her dog, Teek. Her work has appeared in Noble / Gas Qtrly, Seneca Review, Eye Flash Poetry, ellipses, fautline, and Yes Poetry. She can be found on Instagram and Twitter @bishplease3.