Poetry by Chestina Craig
Portrait of the poet as her ex lovers grin
The boy tells me he is an injured hare,
willow swishing his broken bloody
below tender ground.
I follow him down the rabbit hole,
& he salts the earth with my hair.
the boy cries wolf
& I am high on saving him,
a fresh plate of fruit I place myself
unceremoniously in his mouth.
the boy survives on this body &
tells me I am most beautiful
while wilting
like every good plant in the winter,
it is a good game I play with myself,
how dead he can make me feel.
in a dream, I chewed my way free
from the borough, to swallow the light,
but all I know is the wolf he raised
from the dead.
I ask for a shovel to dig us out
& he calls me fox, sly bitch,
says I am trying to trade him for the sun.
the boy cries wolf, his mouth white as the moon
& he has been telling me who he is
this whole time.
Erasure of the Mayo Clinic page on Endometriosis
Endometriosis is painful tissue growth,
most commonly the tissue
continues to act:
thickens, breaks, bleeds.
This displaced body
may form scar tissue.
Organs stick to each other.
Effective treatments
often begin and extend abdominal pain.
You heavy bleeding.
You fatigue.
Reliable medical retrograde.
Blood cells
cavity out of the body
stick to the walls.
They grow.
Thicken.
Bleed.
A Transformation,
a theory,
the body unable to recognize and destroy.
Summer Prom
it is August
& 'Prom' by SZA plays through Rhea’s car stereo
the loudest I’ve ever heard it.
prom is to promenade & that is what we do
through the streets of La Jolla,
our teeth chime loud,
crystal champagne glasses along to the song.
it is late afternoon, but we are morning glories,
blooming violet, & my dress is so purple
I could swallow it.
we are so beautiful only the music can hold us,
& isn’t this tiny revolution?
to pick what we will allow to be
boat or blanket for our bodies?
this summer is omnipresent
everything tangerine juice blurred.
summer is to half year,
is to pack horse in Latin.
this warm animal carries us
to our own good ocean.
I watch Rhea sing a song
that also becomes high-rise in her mouth
& prom sounds like promise
& today I vow
to build more churches
for times like this.
The boy tells me he is an injured hare,
willow swishing his broken bloody
below tender ground.
I follow him down the rabbit hole,
& he salts the earth with my hair.
the boy cries wolf
& I am high on saving him,
a fresh plate of fruit I place myself
unceremoniously in his mouth.
the boy survives on this body &
tells me I am most beautiful
while wilting
like every good plant in the winter,
it is a good game I play with myself,
how dead he can make me feel.
in a dream, I chewed my way free
from the borough, to swallow the light,
but all I know is the wolf he raised
from the dead.
I ask for a shovel to dig us out
& he calls me fox, sly bitch,
says I am trying to trade him for the sun.
the boy cries wolf, his mouth white as the moon
& he has been telling me who he is
this whole time.
Erasure of the Mayo Clinic page on Endometriosis
Endometriosis is painful tissue growth,
most commonly the tissue
continues to act:
thickens, breaks, bleeds.
This displaced body
may form scar tissue.
Organs stick to each other.
Effective treatments
often begin and extend abdominal pain.
You heavy bleeding.
You fatigue.
Reliable medical retrograde.
Blood cells
cavity out of the body
stick to the walls.
They grow.
Thicken.
Bleed.
A Transformation,
a theory,
the body unable to recognize and destroy.
Summer Prom
it is August
& 'Prom' by SZA plays through Rhea’s car stereo
the loudest I’ve ever heard it.
prom is to promenade & that is what we do
through the streets of La Jolla,
our teeth chime loud,
crystal champagne glasses along to the song.
it is late afternoon, but we are morning glories,
blooming violet, & my dress is so purple
I could swallow it.
we are so beautiful only the music can hold us,
& isn’t this tiny revolution?
to pick what we will allow to be
boat or blanket for our bodies?
this summer is omnipresent
everything tangerine juice blurred.
summer is to half year,
is to pack horse in Latin.
this warm animal carries us
to our own good ocean.
I watch Rhea sing a song
that also becomes high-rise in her mouth
& prom sounds like promise
& today I vow
to build more churches
for times like this.
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Chestina Craig (she/her) lives on the California coast with her cat. Her work has been published by The Rising Phoenix Review, Sea Foam Mag, Button Poetry and others. She has presented her work at The Presidents Commission on The Status of Women, The Young Women’s Empowerment Conference, and more. She has a degree in Marine Biology, loves to meld science and art, and sometimes pets sharks or hangs out with octopi. She hopes that one day she will only be required to wear gauzy clothing, study the ocean, and get paid to have too many feelings. Her chapbook "body of water" came out October 2017 with Sadie Girl Press.
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