atavistic
the stars & i are plasma-built – if this
is mediomania, i am rose-guts &
gladiolas. here are my rites, my rings of
labradorite. my skin is from the triassic
period. look at this rosetta speech
pantomiming my forearms. sleep isn’t
getting any easier at all. please come
find me: place me in a game of pursuit. let me click
around this mansion & unlock all
its wine drooling from the cellar – i taste
& i know i must be the door. look to
the back of my throat like
a keyhole. dig for the key. the earth
rejects its flora perennially & we chew it
from our teacups. this is how all of us
can survive.
Kailey Tedesco is the author of She Used to be on a Milk Carton (April Gloaming Publishing) and These Ghosts of Mine, Siamese (Dancing Girl Press). Her manuscript, Lizzie, Speak, was recently chosen as a winner in White Stag Publishing’s full-length poetry contest, and it will be published in 2019. She is the co-founding editor-in-chief of Rag Queen Periodical and an associate editor for Luna Luna Magazine. You can find her work in Phoebe Journal, Sugar House Review, Grimoire, American Chordata, and more. For further information, please visit kaileytedesco.com or follow @kaileytedesco.