"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 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.