"black gun," "Like Leaves," and "Snow Globe Glass"

black gun

hover lover. cover your matching body half
open. ocean spilling over these lips.
lotion. loving. listening to each other breathe.

fire for your rain flourishes my desire.
moistens the dryness in my sharp
tongue. you aren’t one for words.

phrases kill. “phases” don’t fade like faces
into disease. facade. fraud. the flawed
speak betrayed. i’m native. you’re

studying aboard. i applaud your
lemonade sugar squeezed from moments like
lotion. loving. listening to each other breathe.

however my tongue bites bitter. i’m
but not a fish. a mermaid. a creation of
fixation one can or cannot “believe in.”

a topic they’re naive in. a society
misperceived. my complexity thieved
of its difficulty. no one said love.

no one said soulmate, except God
tongue tipped against the eardrum
of my questions answers fuck

biological. it’s psychological. i’m
not mythological when actuality is
lotion. loving. listening to each other breathe.

these vampires thirsty suck from
the cock Lord forgot to sew against
the slit of my identification. the

determination of my sexual orientation.
i know why it drips between these legs.
your heartstrings’ vibrations wake me.

you’re unafraid. unaware my demons
dead escape graves. walk my nightmare’s
day. invade. litter the glittered lives with spleen.

lotion. loving. listening to each other

scream when someone brings a black
gun to a rainbow parade. fires willingly
at another God made. you prayed. your

first aid. turned to the religion denounced
you the renegade. maybe it’s His
punishment. we’ve let this injustice

proceed. linger too long. their disapproval
of our sin is the marching song
we sing: save the mermaids!

heighten our voices to deaden His
obstacles. strengthen our love for
our safety. shoot me. bullseye.

minds closed. claustrophobic thoughts.
shortsighted. homophobic shots. the
ubiquity of us is their iniquity. if

hearts intertwined are bulletproof,
leave this bed unmade so we can
lotion. love. listen to each other breathe.

 


 

Like Leaves

Winter
          seizes
          my memories
          in a dry ice grasp
frost
          coats these lenses
                    blinds from the bitter
          bites
                    underneath my toenails
waking
          faded mind
          surrender to her
          surround sound titter

candy           cane           kisses
          melt
          in her
                    sunlit hair
fancied
                    split ends overlooked

fire flowers
                    glow of gold
                    on her face
          burn effortlessly
          can only
                    i embrace them
                                                               they bloom
                                                               in
                                                               my dreams
these loves
          this air
                    my dawn
                    her nocturnal breath
          Spring upon us
as such sunshine envelops deadnight

          unawakened

the moon
          mourns
                               it no longer
                               injects
                    us
                               with loneliness
she’ll
          carry
i’ll
          name her Summer
                    to remind my angel
why i fell in love

as a breeze    she drifts
                    beneath my weathers
                                          inconspicuous
                               consistent
          while i
                    change seasonally

ice splinters like wood
          lodged in my palm deep
                    like rain i pour
          my heart
                    like clouds take shape
take time to leave this sea
                    of blue
headover
          my patterns though shift
                    though colors dim
everyday
          like leaves
i Fall

 


 

Snow Globe Glass

 

Cut
          me like a glass
          snow globe broken
          to
                    bleed my fidelity.

Fear
          me not as
          God
          but as Hell’s
                    prerequisites.

Visit
          my loony bin seldom
                    but gladly
because I’m madly in love with
          being madly in love
                    with being—

Am I dying?
          dispirited?
          on a sunshine diet,
          forced to see the
                    brighter
                               side of
                               everything.

It keeps stretching;
          the distance between her
          two truths and your one
                               lie.

I silence cries
          with your absence and another man’s
          touch.

Call me the substitutes,        body matching.
                                           My heart,
          prostituted.

Wish
          her well for me, dear.
I promised her
          my withdrawal
          as well
          my condolences.

                    Like your spot in Hell
          I wait,
                    your pedestal risen
by the pieces of my heart fractures,
          sharp as snow globe glass.

 

 

Desiree Brown

Desiree Brown has been writing ever since she was able to. Homeschooled for grades kindergarten through twelfth, Desiree enrolled at Central Piedmont Community College at age fifteen to study English and American Literature and published her first poetry collection, Roses are Read, at age eighteen. Currently, Desiree is working toward her degree in English at UNC Charlotte and plans to transfer to UNC Chapel Hill to work toward a Ph.D. She continues speaking out to adolescents and young adults through her writing.

 

Edited for Unlikely by Jonathan Penton, Editor-in-Chief
Last revised on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - 22:17