Crystallization (Affair)
We’re one zygote begging / for ejection that stops / this growth / this hunger / for snowglobed life // we adore / our young ache / tiring / us out / hounds with a wound kink / we’ve licked / sores long enough to know / what oxytocin tastes like / sunned ants / slight almonds / spearmint / ketones / our palm / pressed to our sternum // we’ll always want / to suck our tongue / with shame / we’ll always want / to inch fingers / further up our seam // we’ve failed / to hear above / our whispering / above the part / of ourself / that wants secret gardens / above the part / that wants to burst open // take the hornbeam branch / in spring / salt-spangled / prism-flinging / is where we’ll break / where I’ll wait / in discomfort / comfort / outside our splintered sphere / the sand we spun hard / with our tendered mouth.
Amy Marengo has recent work in Pleiades, Passages North, Best American Experimental Writing, Salt Hill Journal, and Whiskey Island, among other places. In 2015, she received an MFA from Virginia Tech (where she also taught first-year writing for a few years). For more info on publications and awards, visit Amy at amymarengo.com.