NAOMI LING —
C-SECTION OF A DOLL
body contorts
into mannequin mosaics, folds taut onto
broken mattress springs as day bleeds into
night : broken record player spins as
melodramatically as the tides
silver slit of moon dances
on bare shoulders shoulders and should you breathe?
wind whistles over goosebumps, stifles
the loudest echoes / she screams out
with murdered teeth
that she is victim,
and only the thrum
of her heart gives response.
//
someone murmurs in the
throes of bitten tongue; she wraps the world around her hips and
claws at the oceans : spinning, she hangs suspended
in the midst of an ebbing tide. jagged lines around mouth and nose
bisect / suture fine threads against flesh, fingers search for skin
that is untouched — there is
little beauty in what is left, only
body
GHAZAL FOR APHRODISIAC LOVERS
this body is not mine—languishing in a cavity of jutting
hip bones / teething on supple skin. i met you in the clothed night
of alabaster breeze, cracking our skulls on pavement + trying on this city for size. cynicism bleeding from an open exit wound, saying goodnight
to our lovers and a fishbowl, cracked. turning the lock of apartment 451 + dollar store mattress loosening its springs—one by one each night.
sitting on top of a manhattan cab + scratching our bitten legs, you lean on me. [for warmth, probably. yet—] you tell me you saw your mother in the moon tonight,
is that why you still cup the stars on your cheeks? tunnel vision is delirious, darling. i wonder if you still see yourself—in your eyelids, at midnight
the way you used to. [tell me everything about you.] i want to press my hands on your clavicles and say it will be okay. i want you to stay overnight
in my arms + end up with your foot stuck in my ribcage. it doesn't matter who'sthe heavy sleeper—just you, me, and the manhattan skyline at twilight.
Naomi Ling is a Sino-American student on the East Coast, USA. The founder and EIC of Gossamer Lit, she also serves on the editorial team of four other journals. Her works have been recognized nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and Top Ten Poetry and are forthcoming in Eunoia Review, FEED, all guts no glory, and elsewhere.
She tweets unprofessionally @naomilingwrites.