Hunger
The burning midday sun
as it leans towards twilight
withers my skin
and makes my eyes squint
It calls the Red Beast
that chews on my womb
and makes me cry in pain
in the lonely night
This hot needle
that pierces my eyes
and warps the lens
so the world leans into
me
I suffocate, smothered by the Nothing
my empty screaming
claws at the prison of my
body
waiting out my life sentence.
My open mouth
catches the bitter drippings
from the rejects that stagger
carelessly
into the line of my recless
hunger
I feed
and cast their empty wrappings
but not without a backwards
glance
and cumulative regret
that stifles like stale
air
Winter is approaching
and the sting of the coming
darkness
withers the flowers
and the hope that life implies
I am repulsed by attraction
I don't need the needing
I think I will hold my sorrow underwater
and fake impassiveness
as it claws at my empty
flesh
lurching just before death.
My sorrow is my soul.
Without hunger,
how can I eat?
1996